The Return of Kane
by BlitzVonKrieg
Summary: It has been 23 years since Kane's Ascension. The world is restored and Nod is no more. A new start for the world. However, a rescue mission through time and the return of a charismatic figure set on warning us of impending danger could change everything.
1. Chapter 1

The Return of Kane

Twenty three years was a long time for some. It was long enough for a new generation to come into the world. Long enough for that generation to grow up and never have to have known the struggles which came with living in a worldwide Red Zone. New Adana was no longer the only shining example of prosperity on earth. The air was clean again. The planet restored to its former glory, and all thanks to the one man that the world's population thought to both a horrible villain, and a savior: Kane.

For years people thought that Kane would come right back, show up like he always did, but one year became two. Two years became three. Three became four… five… seven… thirteen… and on and on. After twenty years, Kane was nearly forgotten, written off in history books as a very complex man that nobody could yet quite figure out. After Kane's ascension, along with many of his followers, the Global Defense Initiative gained steam and struck out to reclaim the shattered world and rebuilt it to be better than it had ever been. And the Brotherhood of Nod; what became of them?

The Brotherhood had no leader. It had no purpose any longer. The Scrin Tower was offline entirely, and Legion… Legion shut down the moment that Kane took his leave of the blue marble floating in the darkness. Without their prophet, without their AI and access to all their technology, without any reason to keep fighting… the Brotherhood withered like a garden without water. The masses that had once been so fanatical eventually joined the rest of the world in one way or another, but some clung to the old ways. One even found a way to capitalize on them, and rallied what remained of the shattered ancient order.

Viktor Saveli was that man. At one time he had been a young GDI officer, but had left their ranks when Colonel James struck out against both GDI and Nod. He had joined Nod soon after, and due to his knowledge of GDI weapons and tactics, was quick to move through the Nod Officer Cadre. He even met Kane a few times, though had never been fanatic enough to want to ascend. Once Kane and so many of his followers did though… he wondered whatever became of them. He had eventually pushed those thoughts away, and managing to salvage old GDI, Nod, and Scrin technology, he headed to his ancestral homeland: Russia. The buildup was quick, and the population explosion was unexpected, but soon enough Moscow was a thriving metropolis with an international mega-corporation at its heart: Saveli Solutions International.

Some of the old hangers on hated the thought that they were using GDI technology for some things, but in the end, GDI was better suited for living normally than Nod had ever been. S.S.I. had a secret though: they still had Tiberium, but with information taken from the Tacitus before Kane's departure and stored on various data drives, they knew how to control it, and could predict if or when it would evolve next. Using this resource, they setup a control network in Siberia and went to work – using Tiberium as their medium for harvesting the vast natural resources that had lain dormant and untouched for hundreds of years. With these materials, they were able to build up and reclaim a spot on the world stage. This, combined with a baby boom and a mass immigration, helped increase their population tenfold. Viktor had managed to do in twenty three years what nobody had ever expected – he had returned Russia to her former glory; to the glory of the old USSR, but without the ideology.

In that same span of time, S.S.I. had shot ahead of GDI by leaps and bounds in terms of technology. While GDI no longer had such great need to try and bolster its technological know-how, as it was no longer locked in an unending cycle of war, Viktor saw fit to continue research. Scrin technology was his favorite thing to toy with, as it fit well with some old Soviet secret weapons that Nod still had data on from so many years ago, when Kane had been pulling the strings behind Joseph Stalin. And GDI! Their old data on Allied super weapons was astonishing! Something told Viktor that Einstein had a touch of future sight when he was thinking of the Weather Control Device. For surely, who but a man that had seen an ion storm could envision a man made device capable of the exact same destruction?

Of course, the latter half of the twentieth century was full of strange things. Madmen ran rampant, Romanov, Yuri, and damn near the rest of the Soviet command structure. It was a good thing the Allies won, though in truth, Viktor was sure that Kane had been behind some of Yuri's technology – if not the psychic megalomaniac himself. Kane and Yuri had both known Stalin. He would have had every opportunity. And hell, a second Great War had certainly helped spike technology before that first meteor hit – before the Earth was seeded like some sort of twisted garden. Why not do it?

There was one thing that Viktor had stumbled across in his reading of this old technology though, and it was something that had given him an idea. Some of Kane's own personal logs. Stating how the time line was not… as it was originally set to be. Detailing how the world would have been, had it not been for Einstein. Things about a madman named Adolf Hitler in control of Germany for over a decade, and something called the Holocaust. These things had never come to pass thanks to… Gods, was it really possible? Of course, he doubted Kane would have made note of it were it not, but… a time machine? One that changed history so completely? Everyone knew about the machine in San Francisco that had been used to step back and fight Yuri off before he could bring his Psychic Dominators online, but… one existed before that? One that had such power as to erase an entire portion of history? Astonishing! And… inspiring.

There was one specific thing in the Brotherhood's history that Viktor detested. Amidst all the backstabbing there had been people, good people, caught in the crossfire, but none so much as a General executed in the Third Tiberian War. General Kilian Qatar. She had been Kane's right hand, loyal to a fault, but the great prophet had been tricked, and Kilian had paid for that deception with her life. She'd been a good person, odd as that was to hear about someone in the Brotherhood. Her fate had never sat well with Viktor, and while he didn't really want to change the timeline, he was sure that there was something he could do. Thus, for the last decade he'd had scientists pouring over Einstein's notes on his time machine and Chronosphere. Anything that could help – and now, finally, the device had been constructed.

The day had finally come to save General Qatar from her fate. He was sure she would have a little culture shock, maybe even a bit of depression or disbelief when she discovered what happened, but at least she would be alive. She'd have another chance. Thankfully, they had managed to stabilize the machine as well, so the dreadful reaction of merely touching someone and erasing them would not be a problem for their little rescue operation. A small team armed with stun weapons and medical gear had been assembled to accompany Viktor back, and they were all waiting for their launch as the timer counted down, starting at ten and headed toward one. It was only when the count hit three that alarms began to go off, though they weren't alarms for the time machine. They were for sensors.

Right before the brilliant flash of light that sent the team back, Viktor heard what the alarms were going off for.

The Scrin Tower, and Legion, had just, simultaneously, come online.


	2. Chapter 2

Ayers Rock was an ancient sacred site for Australian aboriginals, but it was an even more important thing for Nod – or had been until Legion had been used by a blonde haired scorpion to frame one of the ancient order's most valuable military assets: their own second in command. In the wake of the Legendary Insurgent's attack on the outback command base, vehicles lay in piles of scrap, blood drenched the already red ground, and buildings were in ruins. It was a very successful operation; unfortunately for General Qatar. However, Kane had not been present for too long after her death, and they knew what had been done with her "corpse" after she'd been executed. They'd essentially left her right where she'd fallen for a good half hour before deciding it was time to take her to the morgue – or at least, the incinerator.

The team lead by Viktor ended up right there in her command center, and the guards that were present therein had not the slightest amount of time to try and stop them. With the finest military precision, the guards were dropped with shots from energy weapons with stun settings, and a couple of medics quickly began tending to Kilian. Her wound was severe, and she was unconscious, but they had arrived in time to save her. Her pulse was weak, but with a quick administration of nanites to heal her wound and break the bullet down, she'd be just fine. Funny to think that the most dangerous man on the planet had just left the room only moments before, and now it was so… empty feeling. The guards knocked out and Kilian off in la-la land, it was just them essentially.

Moving his arm up, he tapped a couple of keys on his wrist mounted AI unit. It was very much like the wrist mounted EVA linkups used by GDI commandos in the first Tiberian War, but the main difference was that this unit, in and of itself, was actually a complete AI. The name of this AI? Dante. It wasn't an acronym either, as strange as that might seem. Viktor had thought, at first, that he would somehow make it one – but in the end it just seemed more fitting to give the AI a name outright. Screw trying to think of some set of words that would fit the letters. The name had all the meaning that it needed behind it.

"Dante." Viktor said as he looked at the display. "How long do we have before we jump back?"

"One minute, twenty two seconds." The AI's deep Russian accented voice replied as its face appeared on the view screen. As Cabal had once appeared, back during the days of the Second Tiberian War, Dante's face was sharp and a reddish orange color, though somehow it was also a bit more… normal. Cabal had always seemed like a wicked machine, no matter when you were speaking of, but Dante was rather likable. "How is she?"

"A lot better than dead, I think." Viktor grinned and Dante shook his head.

"I would hope so, Viktor. Honestly, if you somehow made being alive worse, I would be severely disappointed in your social skills." Viktor rolled his eyes at the machine's quip.

"As if you could do better." Viktor countered.

"Give me an android body and I'll make the ladies swoon."

"Right… And when they learn that you're a bucket of bolts inside a sack of skin?"

"By that time they won't care – they'll still want to jump my _crankshaft_." Viktor couldn't help but let himself actually facepalm as the Russian AI laughed. He had to admit though, at least Dante wasn't as cold as Legion or as… well… insane as Cabal had been. "Oh come on now comrade, you know that was a good one! Admit it!"

"Oh stop it Dante, will you?" He paused, "And you're _Russian_, not _Soviet_. You don't have to say comrade."

"Damn…"

"What?"

"I was kind of hoping I could use the flag as a little decoration as part of my background." A little hammer and sickle flag popped up in the corner. "It looks kind of pirate-like, doesn't it?"

"Dante."

"Yes?"

"Really?"

"What?"

"Pirate like?"

"…Well they are crossed after all. They're just missing a skull." Dante paused, and looked at Viktor, "Can you honestly say you couldn't see it modified just slightly?" The little flag changed, the background of it going from red to black and the hammer and sickle changing from gold to white, followed by the appearance of a skull above them.

"…Alright, fine, it does look pirate… but only once you change the colors and add the skull."

"Thank you!" Dante said happily, "I swear, EVA could never see it either. Was like she wasn't even trying, you know?"

"Dante…" Viktor sighed. He wasn't about to try and explain that EVA wasn't quite up to par emotionally and personality wise with him. "…Nevermind." He shook his head. "How much longer?"

"Fifteen seconds."

"Good. Any idea what was going on just before we left?"

"No, just that the old Scrin Tower kicked on, and so did Legion. Past that, I don't know. My data stream was cut when we jumped. And speaking of-!"

There was a flash of light then and a second later the group was once again standing on the time displacement pad, though now they were plus one rescued General. A couple of quick orders and the medics rushed Kilian off to the medical bay and the escort team was dismissed. Dante re-synced with his mainframe and transferred himself to the master computer in the command center, giving himself access to all the monitors in the base, as well as Viktor's wrist mounted unit.

"Dante, now that we're back, what're you getting?" Viktor asked, and began heading from the temporal displacement control hub to the command center. His Moscow base was a grand one – defended by all three technologies of the Tiberium era, as well as some that delved all the way back to the Great World Wars. Soviet, Allied, GDI, Nod, and Scrin. Five tech trees, and all of them combined together to form one of the most impressive arrays of technological variation, combination, redundancy, mobility, and power. Thanks to all the various technologies, it was also one of the most well informed bases planet-side.

"The GDI base that was established around the tower after Kane's Ascension is on high alert, as to be expected. Nothing has come through yet, but apparently Legion's core is sending a signal though the portal that the tower has created." Dante's words were not soothing. Legion's core no longer rested in Kane's hidden fortress, Temple Prime, in Australia, or any other number of places it may have been over the years. Instead, it was actually housed, now, within a storage bunker below the command center. Viktor had commented once that Legion's core might as well have been the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The storage areas certainly looked similar.

"Any idea what it is?"

"No clue. Seems like a bunch of gibberish to me, but it seems to resemble the language used to store information on the Tacitus."

Reaching the command center, Viktor made his way to the war room quickly, nodding to intelligence officers as he passed them along the way. Once inside the war room, he spoke calmly, but with a commanding voice. "Bring it up on the main screen. I want a bird's eye view of what the hell is going on over there."

Immediately the main screen came up with the scene. The Scrin Tower was in full operational glory, with electricity sparking off of its tendrils and spikes that made up the helix shape. It glowed with a purple light. Then suddenly the orb of energy in the center of the curling spires became an orb of intense white light. Craft began flying out of it – what looked like drop ships or escape pods of some sort, along with fighters and… Stormriders. At first the GDI troops had been awe struck, and communications monitoring revealed that nobody knew whether they should fire or not. The moment the Stormriders appeared, however, the definite Scrin vehicles were immediately fired upon – nobody thought that needed an order to be done.

"Dante… give me something here…" Viktor prodded.

"It would appear that Legion is… controlling the drop ships and escape pods. They're in evasive maneuvers." That much was easy enough to tell by the way they were dipping, dodging, and rolling in the air to avoid being shot down – though some of the more unlucky pods and ships met that fate. GDI's Firehawks were scrambled before anything came through, thankfully enough, and the Scrin fighter craft were soon being dealt with. That allowed for the pods and ships to try and escape, but the portal had not yet closed. A moment later two massive spires shot out of the portal, amidst a hail of energy bolts of various colors. On and on they went until they were followed by a dome shape that expanded until it was clear what this thing was.

It was a ship that hadn't been seen in seventy years – a ship once thought to be of Scrin design, but discovered to be something… else. After Kane ascended, the vessel was never thought of again, though it likely should have been. Drone ships from Scrin PAC's and plasma missiles and shells from Devastator Warships were following the vessel out, and as it exited the portal its shields went offline. The weapons from the Devastators started scoring direct hits and plasma spewed from various portions of the ship. However, with the shields down, the energy was redirected to defensive weapons, and the drone ships were blown out of the sky. As the ship completely cleared the tower, it hovered in the air and turned around to face it as Scrin capital ships began coming through the portal.

The two massive spires sticking out of the ship's bow began to glow at the tips, and a second later two massive energy beams lanced forward, through the Scrin capital ships and then onward – right through the tower. They charged again and fired, then once more, starting a chain reaction in the tower. Explosions ripped through its support structure, and it began to crumble, falling to the ground in massive, boulder chunks – at the smallest. GDI units scattered in the face of the collapsing tower, and the old Nod warship shot off through the sky. Dante continued to track it, finding that Legion was in contact with the ship as well – and it was on its way toward S.S.I.'s command base in Moscow.

However, Dante's scans also revealed that there was a massive problem. The ship had taken heavy damage – far more extensive than what it had taken while going through the portal; more than likely during takeoff on the other side. The thing was just as big, if not a bit bigger than a GST, and it was coming in hot. Travelling at well over the speed of sound, it was also coming apart at the seams, apparently trying to reach Legion's core before it went down. Finally it neared the Russian border and the speed dropped off dramatically, falling under the speed of sound all at once. Closer and closer it got to the command base, but finally, the propulsion systems went out and the ship slammed into the ground. Pieces flew off every which way as it carved a trench into the earth five miles long, and finally came to rest ten miles from the base.

Within minutes, APCs, Carryalls, VTOL gunships and attack helicopters were dispatched and a combat air patrol was scrambled. Viktor was aboard the first carryall that landed with an APC. As soon as it was down and disconnected, the door opened, and Viktor stepped out to see that troops were already assembled outside the ship, and escape pods and drop ships were landing all around nearby. The air was tense as one of the men in dark robes and a black mask approached Viktor, but it was soon broken.

Or should the word 'shattered' be used?

"Hello Viktor." As the man removed the mask and pushed the hood of his robes back, Viktor's mouth opened, but soon his lips formed a smirk.

"You just couldn't resist coming back, could you, Kane?" The Messiah of Nod grinned a bit, "Come for the sunshine, stay for the people; you know." The grin fell a bit as the two men stepped close and took each other's hand, pulling each other into an embrace the likes of two brothers in arms. A couple pats on the back and they stepped back. "It's good to see you, Viktor." They'd never been close friends, but they'd always had a rather amicable relationship.

"You too." Viktor replied, and then leaned to the side a bit, pointedly looking behind his opposite. "Though, I have the distinct feeling it could be under better circumstances." Standing straight again, he raised a brow. "What's going on, Kane? What brought you back?"

"Take me to Legion's core, and I'll explain, I promise you." Viktor nodded and then gave a wave for him to follow him onto the APC.


	3. Chapter 3

"You know, this is the third time that ship has crashed on this rock." Kane said as he took a seat in the APC across from Viktor. The Prophet looked… different. Upon closer inspection, Viktor noted the reason. He didn't have that regal look to him like he so often had in the past. Nor did he have the half crazed, go for broke, god is on our side so we can't possibly lose glimmer in his eyes. As the man leaned back and shut his eyes, he let out a sigh. He even had a five o'clock shadow; something that Viktor, and probably nobody else, had ever seen him with.

He looked beaten, downtrodden, defeated – all things that seemed so foreign to the man's personality that it was almost like he was a different person. Most of all, however, the once Messiah looked… _tired_. He looked physically tired, but more than that as well; mentally and emotionally – a good word for it would be drained. Had he always been like this? Had he always been so drained? He looked like a loyal old dog that had been kicked while it was down. Was this what he was really like when he was alone? When he was able to reflect on everything that had transpired in his history on Earth? He always seemed so powerful, charismatic, and energetic when you saw him, but was that how he really was, or was it all an act; a show put on for everyone that was around him?

"Viktor, if you're going to try and study me, you should probably start with books, and then get a microscope…" Kane didn't even have to open his eyes to know that Viktor was looking him over like some specimen in a lab. He could feel it, and he didn't like it, though he didn't care enough to try and order him to stop. After all, apparently Viktor was a leader now as much as Kane had been near the end. His eyes cracked open as the loading ramp retracted into the floor of the APC and the doors began to close. A final glance outside before the doors closed and he caught one last glimpse of his wrecked warship being cordoned off by his crew and Viktor's forces. The doors then shut and gave a hiss; announcing that the two occupants in the rear bay were now sealed in and the bay had been compressed.

After that, there was silence for a moment, Viktor having looked toward the rear after Kane's quip; figuring he might as well give the man some space. There had to be a reason why he looked as he did. But what was that reason?

"If you have a question, you might as well ask it." Kane said quietly, eyes shut again. The man had always had that odd ability – to know that people wanted to do something or other, and to call them out on it. There was something different about how said it though. Viktor's lips formed a small grin when he realized what it was.

"What, no 'my son' at the end?" The Russian quipped, and he saw a small amused smirk form on Kane's lips.

"I think you know as well as I do that I'm not exactly your father, Viktor." That made Viktor shrug a bit.

"I don't know about that. You might be. I never really knew my father. Mom said he died back in Tib' War Three, when the Ion Cannon blew Sarajevo and half of Europe into the ground." One would have expected Viktor's words to be venomous toward the man responsible for the calamity that killed their father and millions of others, but they were said as if they were simple fact and nothing more.

"My condolences." Kane sat up straight now, feeling somehow compelled to not say such a thing without showing that he truly meant it.

"It's alright. I didn't know him. All I know about him was that he survived everything up to that point. He had a hell of a war record. Was at every major battle of the war on the GDI side – everywhere from that first attack on Goddard where he was a sentry, right up till that fight outside Temple Prime. Even got inside – was on of the troopers that carried that bomb of yours out." Viktor shook his head and actually chuckled, "Put it on the transport, returned to his unit, got ready to make that final push and secure the area, and then… boom." The Russian sighed, and leaned back, even as Kane leaned forward a bit, arms resting on his legs as he listened. "Strange as it may be, I blame Boyle more than you. Fucking idiot."

"He was a glorified money changer, Viktor, not a military commander." To Boyle's credit, he actually hadn't done half bad; at least in the light that most of the time he let his Generals do the planning and stayed out of things. It was those key moments where he interfered that the trouble came from. "And you know, he only survived because that was part of my plan."

"…Not helping your case, here." Viktor said flatly, and Kane laughed, leaning back in his seat, then glancing upward as he felt the entire APC shake – knowing that it was a carryall attaching to the vehicle. "You're not used to that either, huh?"

"Not at all." Kane shook his head, "I know they're safe, but… something about being slung under an over glorified helicopter doesn't quite make me feel at ease."

Viktor nodded in understanding, falling silent for a moment. He was about to speak, when Kane popped up with a question.

"Viktor… how could your father have died in the third war? You were eighteen when I left. It's only been twenty three years, so you're only forty one… if that holds true, that means your father would have to have died… what… in 2059? That's twelve years after the war."

"Mom put me on ice as a fetus." Kane blinked and looked at him, brows raised curiously. "She was seventeen, didn't want an abortion, but didn't want to birth me without someone around to help her raise me, so she had me taken out and put in cryo till she was older. She never did find a new man, but she matured enough to be confident that she could raise me on her own. Then she had me put in a tank until I developed enough to survive outside of it."

"Ah, I see." Kane nodded. He knew the technology existed, but he never expected to meet someone that had actually been through that process. "I tend to think of humanity as fragile, but honestly, I've been surprised many times in the past."

Viktor smirked a bit. "Like with the first five wars?"

Kane raised a brow. "Five? I think your math is off by at least two Viktor."

The Russian grinned. "Oh am I?" He leaned forward, "I think I'm only off by one, if you want to count that little fiasco with Yuri as a different war."

Hearing that, Kane smirked a bit and then whistled innocently, looking away, then back at Viktor, "Been reading my old logs, have you?"

"I don't have much else to do in my down time, and I was dreadfully curious – but then, who wouldn't be? You're immortal after all – that, or you have an amazing doctor."

"Well, he is from the planet Gallifrey." Kane shrugged a bit, an amused grin on his lips.

Viktor blinked and cocked a brow. "What?"

"Nothing. It was before your time. Long, _long_ before your time." Try about a century.

"Okay…" Viktor said at length, then glanced up once more as the carryall lifted off. He was quiet for a moment, and then finally spoke again. "Earlier you said this is the third time that ship crashed. This time makes one… the time Vega drove it into the ground makes two… when was the third time?"

"An incredibly long time ago." Kane blew out a breath. "I'm sure you've seen the logs where I told Slavik that the ship was built at the end of the first war?"

"I have."

"Well… I may have misled him… slightly."

"How slight are we talking here?"

"Oh… just… a few thousand years?"

Viktor's eyes opened wide. "A few thousand years?" His mouth hung for a moment, and then he shook his head, "How old are you that a few thousand years is a slight amount?"

"Old. Really, really, old." Viktor was quiet for a moment, and Kane chuckled under his breath, "The first time it crashed, human civilization was just a blip on the horizon. I was the science officer on board. My brother was the medical officer. Our father was the captain, and our mother was the first officer."

For a moment it looked like Viktor was thinking, then as if he was mouthing something out and counting off on his fingers. Finally he actually said it out loud. "Adam… Eve… Abel… and…" Then he looked at Kane, "Have we been spelling your name wrong the whole time?"

Kane laughed, "No, actually. The Hebrews got it right. But… well, things do get lost in translation. The Church picked on spelling, and I chose another." He shrugged, "But you did hit the nail on the head."

"Did you really kill your brother?"

"Yes, but not over some offering. We got into an argument… we were drunk… our parents had actually died in the crash, along with… well… almost everyone. Seth was one of the other survivors. He was sober for the whole thing and actually goaded us on until we started fighting. One thing lead to another, and… Abel ended up dead. We burned his body, put ourselves in stasis, had the computer monitor the environment around the ship until the planet warmed up a bit, and things just went from there. Over thousands of years and without repairs, eventually the ship was entombed by the natural forces of the earth. We'd crashed in the area that would one day be the Fertile Crescent. You know what happened to Seth. The ship ended up getting excavated and repaired near the end of the first war. I was going to use it then, but never had the chance. I was planning on using it in the second war, but then Vega had to go and crash it."

Viktor listened intently as Kane explained, nodding at appropriate times, but tilted his head and furrowed his brows at the end. "So how the hell did you get it back? GDI had it at the end of the war."

Kane smirked in that devilish way of his. "Remember the Firestorm crisis?"

"Yes…" Viktor nodded slowly.

"Largest. Distraction. In. History."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Not joking at all. I wanted my damn ship back."

"How the hell did you orchestrate _that_?" Viktor asked, nearly in disbelief. Considering it was Kane, however, it wasn't really beyond belief.

"I was hooked up to his mainframe after the war, in one of his bunkers." Kane shrugged, "Wasn't that hard to overpower the other minds and use Cabal to distract GDI. I used the access and command codes to GDI's own Ion Cannon network to support an assault on the facility with cyborgs from what would become the Marked of Kane. The ship was stolen and then the Ion Cannon used to destroy the facility it had been housed at to make it appear that Cabal had simply destroyed the ship to prevent GDI from using it against him. Then it was cloaked and flown to one of Legion's bunkers – and yes, Legion existed in his early stages before Cabal was destroyed."

"You crafty bastard…" Viktor said softly, shaking his head slightly; Kane laughed at the words. "With the firepower it has, I suppose getting it back was indeed a great priority. It was able to shred those assault carriers and warships like paper." He paused, thinking back to the skirmish at the tower – hell, the tower! "It even knocked down the Scrin Threshold. Our own nukes couldn't even scratch that thing."

"Indeed. For all the power it has though, it's far from indestructible. I will say it's far more battle effective than a GST though."

"True that." Viktor agreed with a nod, "So… that never was a Scrin ship, was it?"

"Far from." Kane reaffirmed, "In fact, it doesn't have any Scrin technology present. The Tacitus isn't a Scrin artifact either. It was just a data matrix in the ship's computer core. Sort of like… a memory chip, really – but with more space. It's actually made from depleted Tiberium."

"Depleted Tiberium?"

"Depleted as in… semi-inert. If damaged it can fuse back together, but it won't start growing. We learned a long time ago, my people that is, that Tiberium crystals, if refined properly, could make excellent storage devices."

"I suppose that answers the other all important question." Viktor shook his head and looked up, "You really aren't from Earth."

Kane was silent then, and leaned back against his seat. "I might as well be, now."

Viktor looked at him then. "Something went really wrong, didn't it?"

"You have no idea." Kane shook his head.

"We have a few minutes, and I'm all ears."

"The long and short of it? I was expecting to return home, take everyone that was loyal to me to a civilization far more advanced than Earth – nearly a utopia."

"And…?"

"I was about a hundred years too late."


	4. Chapter 4

Viktor was surprised by Kane's words. His plans, even when GDI derailed them time and again, always seemed to somehow get right back on track. How could everything have gone so wrong for him when he left here? He really had been beaten somehow, but by whom? From what was going on when his warship came through the threshold's portal, he had the feeling that the Scrin were most definitely involved, but how had they tracked him back to that other world? Beaten him there, even?

"A hundred years too late? What do you mean?" Viktor asked, head tilting a bit.

"I mean that when I got there, my people had already been at war with the Scrin for a hundred years, and were about to lose. Worse, I was to blame for it, in more ways that one." Kane rubbed his temples with the tips of his fingers, leaning forward. "You see, the most direct way was that I had Legion launch my ship at the end of the third war, while GDI was distracted with their victory over Nod and the Scrin." It seemed so odd to hear him calling them the Scrin, when so often in the past he had called them the 'visitors' in public. "The Scrin, aware that Earth did not yet have a real space fleet, were curious about the ship as it left the planet, and tracked it… scanned it… saw that it wasn't a vessel from the planet… and they followed it."

"They followed it all the way back to your planet?" Kane nodded silently in confirmation, "That was only fifty three years ago though that the ship would have launched. How are you responsible for the fifty years before that?"

Kane was quiet for a moment, hanging his head, and slowly letting out a breath as he looked up at Viktor. "Because I created them."

"You _created_ the Scrin?"

"I created the Scrin. My people created Tiberium. Tiberium was supposed to be a simple mining material. It was very effective; as I'm sure you're aware. The problem was that to use it in mining, we needed a labor force of some kind that wouldn't be injured by it… so… an engineering team was assembled. I was the head of the team. Our goal was to create a biomechanical life form that could safely harvest and process Tiberium. We were able to do it easily enough, but the problem was that in doing so… we had opened Pandora's Box." Reaching into his robes, he took out what looked like a compact and pressed a button. Four little claw looking appendages came out and locked in place – and were soon revealed to b hologram emitters.

"The original labor force consisted of their two most basic infantry units. To control them more easily, we created the Masterminds." As Kane spoke, the hologram emitters showed images of the various units in a sort of slideshow. "That changed as time wore on though. Masterminds had access not only to the collective intelligence of those creations below them, but also to the minds of their creators. The more they were around my people, the more they learned. They began to develop their mental abilities as well, and eventually, started going rogue. Before we knew it, we had an uprising on our hands."

"Doesn't sound all that bad, if it was just their basic infantry and some Masterminds." Viktor said, making a simple observation, and Kane nodded.

"You would think, right?" Then the once prophet shook his head. "That's what we thought at first too – that it was an isolated incident. That we could quell it easily and that everything would go back to normal. Some variable had been off. We'd missed something in the genetic coding process, or some part of their mechanisms had been faulty and we'd just have to do a redesign, or at least ensure that production standards were up. We were wrong though. The first Mastermind, codenamed 'Overlord' later on, managed to escape during the first battle. His forces were destroyed, but he had managed to learn a great deal about our weapons and tactics, and he moved on to other mining camps, spreading pieces of his knowledge, and rallying other Masterminds, other 'Foremen' under him. Before we knew it, it was a full blown revolution."

Viktor sat back and pinched the bridge of his nose. "So you're telling me that not only did you make these things, you couldn't manage to put them down?"

"Essentially? Yes." Kane blew out a breath. He'd never told anyone this tale – granted, until now he'd had reasons for not revealing what he knew. Now it hardly mattered. He was no great leader, no prophet; no messiah. Now he was just a man. "Overall our military was crushing them in every battle, but it was guerilla warfare at its finest. Every time we got close to something important, they hit us hard enough to stop us, drug the battle out until they could move their camp, and then went into full retreat. Our lumbering units were too slow to keep up with them, and they usually ended up leaving traps in their wake to ensure that they would slow us further."

"So what was it that they were protecting?"

"Their first Drone Platforms. They'd build a small base, produce more of themselves, and move again before we could get to their main base. Every time they deployed though, they would research just a bit more. Every platform had a different task; a different component of their main goal to complete."

"Which was?"

"Their first space vessel. We didn't know what they were building until it was already completed and leaving our planet. Their Overlord and a few Foremen were aboard it, along with a Drone Platform and a labor force. Before we could even react, they had left our star system. The Foremen left behind kept the battle up for years, expanding their arsenal in minor ways. They seeded areas of the planet with Tiberium to cause ecological damage and to make areas uninhabitable, but it never caused us as much of a problem as it did Earth, as we had created it and knew how to clean it up already. It wasn't until the Scrin made alterations to it that we began having problems with it, but even then we were able to get control of it again relatively quickly. For the most part, Tiberium infestation was just a delaying tactic of theirs."

"So what happened in the end?"

"In the end, they managed to build a couple more ships, load up as much of their forces as they could, and then launched them. What was left behind made a last stand in order to try and allow the ships to get away. One did. The other was shot down before leaving the atmosphere and crashed in the middle of one of our ice caps." Kane smirked then. "We let them freeze there and then went in and began dissecting them. We discovered via the dissected Foremen that they had… evolved, in a manner. Their brains had grown and their nervous systems had become engrained with the bio circuitry that ran through their bodies. They'd stopped being slaves a long time before the first revolt."

"So how many of them are actually… smart? I mean the Buzzers seem like a bunch of flying chainsaws that just sort of gravitate around one another in a ball, like a bunch of locust. Hardly the most intelligent beings I think."

"The Masterminds are the original intelligent ones. Assimilators are a step down from them, it seems. Past that…none of them are really intelligent. They just take orders from the Masterminds and Assimilators – though they only rely on the Assimilators if there are no Masterminds around, and are only about half as effective."

Viktor nodded. "So… basically… the entire war they fought with your people was one massive distraction. Their main goal was never to win, but rather, it was to escape the planet."

"Precisely."

"So how the hell did they end up some massive force capable of invading a planet?"

Kane laughed. "You haven't witnessed an invasion Viktor."

"Well maybe I wasn't alive yet when…"

Viktor trailed off as Kane held up a hand. "No… I mean they never invaded Earth."

"Then what do you call…?"

"That? That was a recon and harvesting force. They were duped into coming early. Normally they wait until the indigenous population is wiped out naturally by Tiberium, and then they come in. The forces that came to Earth were never meant to have to do more than possibly mop up."

"How do they know when to come in? They were nowhere near the planet."

"They have their sensors programmed to detect a natural liquid T detonation. When one can occur without being forced, they know the planet is ripe and that any possible intelligent life is most likely incapacitated."

"So basically they seed a planet and wait for the crystals to do the dirty work for them."

"That's the simplest way to put it, yes." Kane nodded, and went on. "I tricked them into coming here in order for them to get that threshold built. I knew that GDI and Nod would be able to fight them off individually. They'd be worse for wear by the time the Scrin were beaten back off the planet, but they'd take long enough to do it that a tower would get completed."

A look of realization swept over Viktor when he heard that. "No wonder you were so furious over the alliance between GDI and Nod during the war… you knew that if they worked together, it would be over too soon. The towers would never have gotten built."

"That, among other things…" A sigh came from the former leader's lips. "There are things I truly, deeply regret about that conflict, Viktor. I lost a good friend, and one of the most talented commanding officers I've ever known." Inside, Viktor was grinning. There was a big surprise in store for Kane. Outwardly though, he gave a solemn nod.

"I can understand that." Viktor said. "So what happened on your planet though? Obviously enough, the Scrin were pulling their typical crap. How did they end up forcing you back here?"

"They were already in the middle of an invasion when my ship arrived. They knew it had come from Earth, and stepped up operations tenfold. We'd been winning the war up until that point, but when my ship arrived they made sure to wipe out most of our space fleet and land more troops. They dropped massive crystals of Tiberium all over the planet. By the time me and my followers actually arrived on the planet… it was my people enslaved and fighting the guerilla war. A complete role reversal from their origins. My followers and I ended up joining the resistance forces, fought for twenty three years, managed to recapture some of the ships of our fleet – including mine, and then made a run for it. Everyone back on my planet is either dead, dying, or being converted by force into some sort of twisted cannon fodder or new unit to add to their ranks."

"You mean…?"

"Yes Viktor…" He let out a breath slowly, "…What came through that portal is all that's left of my people and the followers that went with me. The Scrin killed everyone else. We're it."


	5. Chapter 5

Silence filled the APC for the remainder of the flight back to Viktor's Moscow command base – though not because the two men had nothing to talk about. They both had quite a lot on their minds, actually, but neither knew what to voice first. Before either man spoke again, the APC shuddered and bounced as it was set down once more. Another shudder and the Carryall had released the rolling metal coffin. It was then that Kane's voice ended the silence, the hiss of the APC decompressing at the same time accompanying his words.

"Tell me, Viktor…" He began slowly, "…what has become of the Brotherhood? Does it live, or… will those that left with me had to adjust to losing that identity as well?"

Viktor was quiet for a moment, but when he heard the soft sigh come from the once messiah, and saw his eyes fall to the floor, he spoke. "I hate to confirm what you must suspect, but… the Brotherhood as any of you knew it is gone, Kane. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I don't think anyone expects it to be the same as when we left." He stood slowly then as the rear doors opened and the boarding ramp was lowered; Viktor following suit quickly as the doors opened, but leading the way toward them. "How much has changed?"

"Well…" Viktor stopped, pausing in thought at how to word it. "…in a manner, it doesn't exist at all. Yet, in another, it lives on by another name; another identity."

"How so?"

Viktor looked over his shoulder. "…As the most powerful corporation on Earth, and a nation of its own…" He smirked then and stepped out of the APC. The base was practically buzzing with all the various technologies at work simultaneously. It was truly a futuristic wonder, but Kane was quick to remind Viktor what they were after.

"You've certainly done well for yourself, and those that follow you." Kane said as he followed Viktor out, "But refocusing… Legion's core?"

"Ah, yes, follow me. It's currently in our storage bunker, beneath the command center." A nod was received from Kane, and Viktor showed him the way. It was rare that anyone had reason to delve into the storage bunker for any reason, and thus, it rather looked like a tomb of some sort - with the amount of dust and webbing that was collecting along the walls, floor, and ceiling of the corridors along the path. Archaic runes and hieroglyphs decorated the walls the closer one got to the bunker's entrance.

Just before the entrance there was also some graffiti – strings of rather profane words, along with various gang markings, little bits of random artwork, and simple defacing of the once immaculate corridor. The entrance was something akin to a vault; outside was a simple control interface that came online as soon as a wrist-mounted AI came within range, with but only a couple of buttons and a lever. The vault door itself held the appearance of a massive gear that was slid into place from the interior. Covered in dust and cobwebs by the time they reached the control console, Viktor stepped up to it, pressed the dusty red button to connect to his AI unit for security authentication, and waited.

A moment later the green button lit up and was pressed, and the lever pulled down. Behind the door was the sound of poorly lubricated metal sliding against metal, a hissing noise from pressurization, and then finally the sound of something locking into place against the back of the massive gear-shaped door. Suddenly it began sliding backward with a hideous screeching sound until it left the outline of itself. Then it was rolled out of the way by a massive metal arm that then released it and moved upward, locking back into position. Waving for Kane to follow him, Viktor grinned.

"Welcome to the Warehouse, where anything is possible."


	6. Chapter 6

((Hey all! Sorry this took so bloody long. . But I'll be trying to update this more now. Been working on an actual novel for a while now. Anyway, enjoy! ^-^))

It was cold. Worse, this wasn't the sort of cold that went away in spring and your got a nine month reprieve from. No, this was the kind of cold that never left. There was snow year-round, and the waterways were always clogged with ice this far north. Sure, yeah, it was secure as all hell – but what was all the security for now?

After the tiberium was cleaned from the planet, GDI had the old Groom Lake, Nevada facility reactivated; now it was a fully operational base. It was better protected now than it ever had been. Firestorm Generators were in place, automated defenses lined the hills, and – hell – the base had the Steel Talons as its perimeter security force. On top of that, SSI hadn't been the only ones digging back in old files. GDI had gone back and found the old plans for the Gap Generator and Weather Control Device.

Groom Lake's Gap Generator covered everything from the center of the base to a mile past the hills. The Steel Talons' security teams had wanted that so it was harder to get a read on their patrol routes. The Weather Control Device had little use because of the climate, at least in a combat role. However, combat wasn't what they had in mind for it. No, they used it to form clouds over the base so that satellites couldn't peek at it.

Of course, unlike the old American use of the base, GDI had been fairly open about its uses – even giving tours to show that they were working on unlocking the secrets of Scrin technology; though they never did take questions on their findings. The Americans had kept the work there hush-hush while they were re-purposing the technology of the SR-71 Blackbird into their Aurora Bomber, and the prototype of the Particle Cannon was being tested. Before that, the base had been used to tear down Soviet (and later Yuri's) technology and find its weaknesses. The security around the Aurora and Particle Cannon projects had been advised by the Central Intelligence Agency, and they had been advised by the early Global Defense Initiative. Why? Skirmishes in the Middle East had provided some disturbing intelligence. Namely that both projects were possibly infiltrated already.

GDI had known for a long time that the Global Liberation Army was just the Brotherhood masquerading around as a different organization. The Brotherhood had orchestrated that entire conflict to weaken US influence overseas and in the United Nations. That's why, when GDI fell under scrutiny and had its funding suspended in 1995, the Americans didn't rally support for them and send reinforcements. After the GLA routed the US command base in Germany, and the Chinese had to step in – nuking the captured facility in the process – the United States pulled out of Europe altogether. It wasn't until Tib' War Two that the US really got back in the fight directly; when China and her people were too ravaged by tiberium to be a viable super power any longer. Talk about short lived power, huh?

Going back a bit though, it was after the US's "strategic withdrawal" from Europe that Groom Lake had begun focusing on the Orca Fighter and the Mk. II version of the Particle Cannon – what we know today as the Ion Cannon. These would be the USA's gifts to GDI nearer to the end of the first war; they were also Seth's only excuse for justifying any thought of an attack on the Pentagon. Apparently... the excuse hadn't been anywhere near sufficient.

However, this all relates back to the fact that this frozen hell-hole known as Hammerfest was still open! Hell, the old Nod base that had once managed to capture it, and was subsequently captured by GDI after it retook Hammerfest, was now a GDI R&D base. Specifically, it dealt with old Nod technology that GDI technicians still were wrapping their heads around. Of course, what made it that special? Surely equipment and personnel could have been moved from the Hammerfest bases to others – and the tech could have been moved to Groom Lake. What justified the dedication of assets required to keep this place operational? Sadly, it initially really had little to do with GDI's original base in the area, and everything to do with the captured Nod facility.

You see, the GDI troops that had captured the base had managed to fake Nod out. Right before the primary attack forces hit the base, they'd hit it with an EMP to knock out the base's communications and computers. It had worked well enough that the fight had been over in about half an hour, and the captured Nod technicians had been... "convinced"... to help the GDI tech boys make it seem that the base had been destroyed. The reality? Nod's Hammerfest base was captured and cloaked. Even that wasn't the most important bit though.

The most important thing was that it was the only perfectly intact Nod installation captured during the second war. Surely, yes, other Nod bases had been captured by competent, intelligent, and daring commanders during the war. However, those bases, when the Nod commanders knew that all was lost, would destroy their own communications equipment, fry the hard-drives of every computer after transmitting a compressed data file of all the intel up to that point, and then make GDI forces pay dearly in blood to capture a Nod base that was practically useless from an intelligence standpoint. Sure, yeah, it could make basic Nod units, but so what? Nod's former Hammerfest base though? Now that was an intelligence goldmine. Why? Because when the computers and communications equipment came back online thanks to their backups, everything still worked.

With the base under GDI control, and Hammerfest's R&D personnel on site so close by, GDI had begun research into Nod technology. Better, because Nod thought that the base had been completely leveled by GDI, the Brotherhood had written the base off as "destroyed" rather than "captured" - and had given the base's old data link codes to a new base somewhere else. What did that mean for Hammerfest? Simply put, it let GDI use the Brotherhood's communications at the captured base as a listening post on top of being an R&D base.

That was how, as the war progressed, they continued getting fresh intel on Nod movements. The fresh data streams also allowed the R&D base to get the designs for new Nod units as Nod began putting them into the field. It was also how GDI managed to figure out where Cabal's true core was, and then, later, managed to track down all his individual bunkers. Of course, the ability to spy on Nod's communications was lost when they switched over to an EVA unit, and then later to their new A.I., but Nod's old tech was still valuable... especially their stealth technology.

Now, GDI combat doctrine didn't have much room for stealth units. It wasn't how they operated. Many commanders could see the advantage, and had exploited that advantage on the rare occasion that they found themselves in possession of Nod equipment... but GDI hardliners, that made up the majority of the old-guard officer's corps, not to mention the GDI President's Joint Chiefs of Staff, were against it. They didn't like the thought of "losing their roots" and "becoming too much like their old enemies." They didn't want Nod to win by osmosis.

However... there was one distinct niche where nobody could argue against the use of stealth tech by GDI – the special forces; the GDI Commando Corps. Chameleon Stealth Suits had been used by the Black Hand during the first war, and in the second war by elite scouts. The third conflict had seen them rise as elite infantry units again. By now, GDI had realized the advantages of giving their own Commando Corps this technological edge, and had begun implementing new battle tactics and weapons for their commandos as well. The G-3X assault rifle was their best friend, after their combat armor.

Developed post-tiberium infestation, the G-3X, nicknamed the "triple threat" and "tripower" by GDI commandos, was the next-gen GDI assault rifle. Still considered to be officially a prototype, it is the combination of three armaments. The first is a 7.62mm select-fire railgun with four modes: safe, semi, three-count burst, and full auto. The ammunition for the railgun is a tungsten-carbide slug with a depleted uranium tip and a steel core. Magazines are the twenty-count straight, thirty-count curved, and hundred-count dual snail.

The G-3X's secondary armament is a high-intensity laser; what would once have been called "industrial grade". Slices through just about anything you put in front of it, but is prone to overheating if fired for extended periods. The tertiary armament is the NM-500. Taking a lesson from the old under-barrel grenade launchers on the M-16, AK-74, and other elderly assault rifles, GDI developed "neutron munitions." The technology originally came from the Chinese neutron shells developed for their Nuke Cannons, and the American Particle Cannon – as well as, later on, the short-lived "Personal Ion Cannon."

Using the technology behind the old neutron shells, they developed a contained charge that generated high amounts of neutrons. From the knowledge gained during the development of the Particle Cannon, they learned to identify and separate the subatomic particles in the shell. Finally, to discharge the particles, they used the tech from the Personal Ion Cannon. The result was a munition that turned everything organic for five hundred feet in front of the weapon, inside a forty-five degree firing arc, to dust. On top of that, once expended, the charge could be twisted counter-clockwise at the middle, the bottom could be turned as a timer, and it could be used as a grenade or explosive charge. When used in either of these two manners, it would obliterate everything within a twenty-five foot blast radius.

The rest of the commando's weaponry wasn't quite as impressive as the G-3X. There was the W10XR (Webley 10mm Experimental Rail-pistol) for a sidearm. It held fifteen rounds and fired a 10mm lead slug with a flat head, coated in copper, containing a tungsten-carbide flechette with a steel back plate. Stopping power was the name of the game with the W10XR. Then there were the EMP grenades – each with a thirty-foot radius. Finally there was the XCK Mk. III – the third model of the Experimental Commando Knife.

By this point, few people really thought of any kind of knife as a useful weapon in combat; they simply weren't effective with the body armor and gear of modern infantry. The GDI Commando Corps decided to change that. The design, which harkens back to the days of the World War One trench knife, is comprised of four primary parts. The blade is thirty-three centimeters long with katana-like sharpness, has a slight, scimitar-esque, curved portion on the back of the tip like a Bowie Knife, and running along the back is a wicked portion with saw-like serrations. A spike knuckle-duster protects the fingers and acts as another weapon. At the rear of the hilt is an eight centimeter spike. Finally, the hilt itself contains a harmonic resonator that enables the blade, knuckle-duster, and spike to go through a Zone Trooper's power armor (and just about anything else), like a hot knife through warm butter.

Finally there was the most important piece of gear the commandos had – the XCA; Experimental Commando Armor. Up through the Firestorm Crisis, GDI commandos had little better than modified infantry armor despite their increasingly risky missions; might as well have just been Kevlar and knife vests. During the third war the GDI commandos got a bit of a makeover... and a recon version of the Zone Trooper power armor. It was lighter, more maneuverable, and had an advanced jump-jet system to propel the commandos even further with the added bonus of a shorter recharge time. Unfortunately, that was it. Many commandos would rather have had the armor of the Zone Troopers – at least those didn't skimp on the armor.

In recent years, GDI R&D decided to listen to the men in the field, and started working on the XCA. They combined the raw strength and armor protection of the Zone Trooper armor, the light weight, maneuverability, and advanced jump jets of the recon armor, and the stealth technology of the Chameleon Stealth Suits. The result was a power armor that quintupled the strength of the occupant, had full internal life support systems, a Heads Up Display, could take sustained 23x152mm Russian and laser fire, could jump jet over the width of the Grand Canyon, was invisible to sensors and nearly so to the naked eye, and enabled the user to operate weapons capable of disabling or destroying damn near anything a commander wanted to no longer worry about.

By now, you're probably wondering what any of this has to do with good ol' frozen-year-round Hammerfest... and why that's even important. The answers are simple. To justify Hammerfest's continued existence to the taxpayers when GDI was closing bases, GDI had made it the home of the GDI Commando Corps & Training Facility – and Hammerfest was also charged with the R&D behind the XCA. The reason that any of this is important...?

As soon as that _very_ familiar spacecraft came through, and subsequently destroyed, the Scrin Threshold Tower, Hammerfest was the first and only GDI base to be ordered to go on high alert.

Many others did out of habit, but for Hammerfest it was mandatory...

...and it was also mandatory for one Captain William "Wild Bill" Parker to report to his commanding officer. The top brass had a mission for him.


	7. Chapter 7

((Two chapters in as many days . LOVE ME!))

Sirens wailed in every corridor of Hammerfest – unfortunately, it wasn't just one specific type of siren. No, some stupid butter-bar lieutenant hadn't known which alert to put the base on; there never had been a specific alert sound designated for an arrival through the Threshold Tower. Hell, after Kane and all those fanatics of his up and vanished, the tower had shut down. GDI hadn't even believed that the damn thing would turn on again. So much for that! Now everything from air raid sirens to an NBC (Nuclear-Biological-Chemical) warning was going off.

The base's skeleton crew and R&D staff were running around like their heads were on fire and their asses were catching! Some, if not most, of the R&D staff had headed straight for the NBC suit storage in the right wing of the armory. They knew better than to chance that shit and get the life pulled from their bodies by some sort of radiation or toxin. Europeans – who most of the R&D staff were comprised of – had learned that lesson the hard way in 1990 when the GLA had launched their missile from that cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The communications officers and other random non-combat base personnel ran to get gas masks and then activated the base's Advanced Firestorm Generator. It was the next-gen version of the old defense, and unlike the original that only lasted for an hour or so, this one could last for twelve... and Hammerfest had two of them now. There was an obvious problem with depending on that during a siege of course. Supplies could run out. The Commando Corps had thought about that ahead of time and had tunnels that stretched to the captured Nod base. Normally it would be a security risk – but with the base permanently cloaked, it was a hell of an advantage.

Captain William Parker couldn't help but be amused as he made his way to the Command Center to report to the base commander. Oh, this was rich, watching all these idiots running around. As he passed some of the other commandos he could see that they were just as amused as he was – and none of them had bothered doing more than stopping and watching as all the alarms came on at the same time. They'd checked their wrist-mounted EVA units, seen the feed from Italy, and they knew what was going on. If anyone else on the base had stopped to bother checking, they wouldn't be so worried by the sirens. Wild Bill himself was sure that the lieutenant that had kicked them all on at the same time would be getting reamed later by the commander. He should have just sounded a general alarm. Instead, he panicked and put the entire base on edge.

Stepping through the doors of the Command Center, he made his way down to the war room; being directed toward it by an MP that saw him walk in. Apparently things were tense enough that the top brass of GDI had seen fit to make Hammerfest their first response. It was kind of odd, really; normally they didn't do that until later on in a conflict, once things got desperate, or they really wanted something blown the hell up. The ship had crashed inside S.S.I. Territory, and for the last couple decades GDI and S.S.I. had been on good terms. They had free trade, open borders, and only light security to make sure that there was no illegal trafficking of drugs and such across the borders. They worked well together, even if they didn't really talk much. What was the brass planning on doing?

Entering the war room, Parker saw a few task force commanders and the base commander huddled around a table with a holographic map provided by a satellite feed on display. However, it wasn't a map of the area surrounding Hammerfest in the frozen north of Europe. No, it was displaying the area around the downed spacecraft. In an instant, he got a bad feeling. He knew where this was going.

"You wanted to see me, Locke?" The commando finally spoke up, and the entire command staff looked at him, though only the General looked his way. Brigadier General Nathaniel Locke, grandson of the man that had once been William's grandfather's commanding officer in the first war. It was an odd sort of history that their families shared. General Locke – four stars by the time that he died in the second war – had been his grandfather's superior while they chased all over for Dr. Mobius and daughter, and then smashed Project Regenesis... well, during the first war anyway. The data had been saved and came into use during the second war; that's how Nod got their cyborgs.

Their fathers had never met, having worked in different units during the second war; in different theaters of operation even. Parker's father had been in Eastern Europe. Locke's father had been in the Americas. Locke's grandfather had bit it during that war – and not even in relation to any kind of battle. He'd died of a heart attack half way through the war. Of course, Parker's grandfather had passed on by now as well – three days after being promoted to Brigadier General himself. His last words? _Locke would be laughing still_... He never had been formal to the man.

Nathaniel stood upright, walking over to William with a dire look on his face. Oh yeah, this couldn't possibly be good. Unlike his grandfather, the younger Locke was usually smiling. Granted, he came from a prestigious family and ran an R&D base with the best troops GDI had – why _wouldn't_ he smile? Now though he looked like he'd just gotten some of the worst news he'd ever heard... and William knew exactly what the brass wanted done. It was why Nathaniel would call him down here instead of someone more qualified.

"I assume you know what's happened?" He questioned, glancing to the EVA unit on Will's arm.

"Yeah, I know. Still hard to believe something was able to take that tower down. Even the Ion Cannon never managed to so much as scratch it."

"I know what you mean. It's a bit unnerving, but right now that's not our primary concern. I called you down here because-"

William held up a hand. "Let me guess. I'm going?"

"You _and_ your team, Captain." Locke said, then motioned for him to follow as he stepped back toward the map. "You'll be dropped here." He pointed to a somewhat hilly area about a kilometer from the alien ship's crash site. "I take it you know what this vessel is?"

"Yeah, it's that Scrin ship that General Vega crashed during Tib' War Two, isn't it?" He paused for a minute, "Or... one like it anyway. Didn't Nod's genie destroy that bucket of bolts during the Firestorm Crisis?" He glanced at Locke then, curiously.

"So far as we know, he did. The base was leveled by one of our own Ion Cannons. Nothing was left but a crater." Locke shrugged, "So we have two possibilities, really. One, somehow that ship got out before the base was destroyed – which means it was on auto pilot and went God knows where... or... it's a vessel of the same class. Either way, your mission is the same. Get in, scout it out, find out what's going on, and get out. It's a recon mission only, _Havoc_. Understand? We're at peace. That means no shooting." He paused, and then looked at Parker sternly, "No _stabbing_, either."

William laughed, "Alright, alright, I get it." Then he grinned, "And isn't that sweet, finally giving me a code name, huh? And the one gramps used to have. I'm _touched_, Locke, _really_."

Locke rolled his eyes. "Maybe I should have called you Michelangelo."

"Maybe, but then I'd never call you anything but Splinter." Parker laughed.

Locke pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, making the shooing motion with his other hand. "Just... _go_..." He said in that exasperated way.

"Good as gone."

==X==X==X==

Parker's team had been assembled on the flight line by the time that their 'fearless leader' had made his way back outside. Unlike the old Dead Six, William's team only had four members: himself, First Lieutenant Tyler O'Connell, and Second Lieutenants Sandra Baker and Antonius Zhukov. Sitting beside them was a large, black helicopter. It looked like a mutt that resulted from the combination of an old Russian Hind, an Orca Fighter, a Carryall, and the angular black stealth plating of an F-117. The body of the Hind, the VTOL jets of the Orca, the engine setup and cargo capacity of a Carryall, and all of it sloped, slick, and black. The rear bay to the cargo/passenger area was down, and benches had been slid into place for them to sit on. Their armors lined the walls; standing upright and held in place with clamps.

"So you all know what the mission is?" Parker asked as he stepped up to them,

"Yeah, we have the general idea. We're just snooping; right?" O'Connell answered up, shouldering the rig that held his weapons; the other two simply held the rigs in one hand or the other, though all four of them were dressed in a sleek, black suit. The suits were a biometric interface that connected their nervous systems to the armor they would be wearing.

"Yeah, pretty much." Parker replied, then glanced to the pilot of R&D's latest little toy as he stepped over to them. "Does she fly?" He asked, thumbing toward the tricked out whirly-bird.

"Like a dream, Captain." The pilot said as the base's sirens finally cut out, and then the general alert was sounded shortly before they all fell silent. "Looks like someone finally got the right idea."

"Yeah," William replied, glancing to the nearest speaker, "a bit late." He looked back to their pilot then. "Alright, let's get this show on the road."

==X==X==X==

"Hammerfest Control, this Ghost Flight, headed toward hot-zone LZ. About to go active cloak, so we'll be dropping off your satellite view and going on radio silence as soon as we near the border. Prepare to switch to tachyon beam tracker to follow our movement per the General's orders."

"_Ghost Flight, this is Hammerfest Control, switching to tachyon beam tracker now. Good luck, and God speed. Hammerfest Control, out."_

The SAT-1 (Stealth Air Transport, Model 1) shot through the sky with all the speed of an Orca Fighter, but with the same gentle ride as one of the Bombers. A gentle whine came from the engines as it cruised along through the sky, undetectable even on GDI's own radar, and as soon as it was a mile from the border... its cloaking device was activated and it became invisible in every sense of the word. It was another aircraft designed primarily for use by Hammerfest in case of a siege; a way to get supplies into the cloaked Nod base without alerting anyone to the fact that some other vehicle had suddenly vanished. It was only one of five so far, but plans called for two full squadrons of thirty-two.

In the back, despite the gentle ride, it wasn't exactly the most comfortable ride ever. The benches were alright, but Sandra was scowling just a bit. "Benches? Really?"

"What's wrong, ginger?" Antonius smirked, speaking in his light Chechen accent, "That tender little British ass of yours not comfortable? I could help you out. The girls say lap is nice to be in."

The ginger-haired Brit glared at him, but then just smiled and shook her head. She'd gone straight into the officer's corps, and then right to commando training because of her technical skills and her marksmanship scores. She was the youngest member of the team, and Antonius was actually the oldest. The old Czechoslovakian had enlisted with GDI's regular infantry corps, and was older than Captain Parker by about eight years. Parker was only three years older than O'Connell, and O'Connell was five years older than she was. She had just turned twenty-one last month. She often forgot that Antonius' sense of humor was a bit more... _mature_... than most.

When the red light came on in the back of the transport, that was the signal to suit up, and the four of them stood, moving to their armors. "Alright, once we're on the ground, we're splitting into three teams." O'Connell spoke – Parker usually left the planning to him, especially since O'Connell was good at it... and usually gave him the job that he wanted anyway, "Captain Parker is going to be checking out the ship."

_Score._ Parker thought to himself.

"I'll be taking a look at their perimeter around the craft." O'Connell continued, "And you two will be checking out the motor pool they're setting up, as well as the pods that landed around the crash site. Questions?"

"Just one." Parker spoke, "What channel we setting the comm sets too?"

"Channel Five. It should be clear this far out." Parker and the other two nodded, and then all moved toward their armors. Parker and O'Connell's armors were on the port side of the SAT-1, and Baker and Zhukov's armors were on the starboard side. Green lights lit up above the armors, and certain parts of the interior glowed a soft cyan.

Glancing over, Antonius could see the slightly hesitant look on Sandra's face as she stared into the armor – the front split open and waiting for her to get inside. It wasn't her first time. In fact, she had probably the most practice time out of all of them. However, this was her first time going behind the lines. She'd never been in real combat, and even the slightest possibility of it was something that worried her. She'd been more than happy to go on the mission with her team, but only now was it starting to be... well... _real_ to her.

The strong hand that touched her biometric suit-clad shoulder made her jump ever-so-slightly, but her anxiety seemed to fade as she looked up at the middle-aged Czech beside her. "Hey..." He said softly, "I'll be right there with you... Everything will be okay. I promise." Sandra smiled softly and gave a little nod, though was surprised when he placed a chaste kiss atop her head. "If anything ever happened to you, Amelia would never forgive me." He chuckled, and Sandra smiled, thinking of the older man's little girl. The whole team had met her once, and the little thing had taken to her. Apparently even asked after her frequently; acted like she was her big sister.

"You're probably right..." Sandra smiled, "...she wouldn't. That's also why we can't be together." She smirked a little, "It just wouldn't work out. Wouldn't be best for her with how she thinks of me." She winked.

"Oh, Sandra, my dearest... you _wound_ me." He replied, his hands going to his heart as if he'd been stabbed, "Using my own blood to halt true love's advance... for _shame_." He grinned then, watching as Sandra turned, stepping backward into the armor, smiling at him as it started to seal around her, a hiss and the sounds of locking mechanisms coming from the power armor. Once she was in hers, he moved to his own and stepped in the same way.

The armor closed, enveloping him in its protective plates and layers, bonding with his nervous system and amplifying his strength. The casing around and in front of his head closed then, the last bit moving into place like the visor of a medieval knight's armored helmet. His world was plunged into darkness and silence then, until suddenly the suit's sensor systems kicked on, and the HUD came up on the inside of the visor, showing him the world once more. The clamps were released then, and the four commandos moved to grab their weapons as they neared their landing zone.


	8. Chapter 8

The medical bay was quiet, calm, and with a temperature that was regulated to be cool – or warm depending on your perspective. It was always set to be a comfortable seventy-six degrees Fahrenheit; the difference of whether it was cool or warm being decided by the temperature it was compared to upon entering. Most personnel would find themselves sharing a room in one of the wards. Kilian Qatar was not most personnel; she was a strong woman, but the medical staff wanted to soften the blow of her learning of her circumstances as much as possible. After all, it had been over fifty years since she "died."

For them it simply meant the rewriting of one section in a few history books, but for her? For her it meant the redefinition of the world stage. She had been Kane's right hand, the heir of Nod, and had loyalty not seen since the likes of Anton Slavik. Of course, Kilian hadn't been in command of the Black Hand; after Anton's death, that duty had fallen to Marcion. However, much like Slavik, she had to lead the Brotherhood against a new enemy in the wake of their true leader's apparent demise. She had never been a deeply religious woman; sure, yes, she gave that little speech to new recruits about "the power of the great green crystal"- but that was just propaganda. It wasn't how she thought.

Now, that's not to say that she didn't believe in Kane. Oh no, she believed in him alright, but she also believed him to be a mortal man like any other. She knew that he'd come back from death at least once, and that he had been around since the time of Joseph Stalin without aging. Yet... she knew there were plausible, technological, explanations. The primary one was that Soviet cloning technology had been around since the early 1960's; thirty years before Nod had posed as the GLA, and likely had been in testing even longer. Kane would have had access.

This didn't explain how he didn't age before that thought. Assuming he was truly ancient, how could it have been possible? Cloning, stasis pods, and even plastic surgery were all modern possibilities. When Kilian had been a "butter bar" - a Second Lieutenant – straight out of officer's school, she and a couple friends had jokingly tried coming up with explanations. One had simply said "magnets" and shrugged. Another had proposed time travel. Her theory had been aliens. In the opening minutes of the Scrin attack on Earth, she had thought about her old joke – and suddenly it wasn't so funny anymore. Her next thought was an old quote:

_Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly... and surely... drew their plans against us..._

It was the first time that she had truly felt fear in her life. Fear in combat was one thing; that and a touch of courage could keep your ass, and the asses of the guys in the foxholes around you, alive. This had been different. This fear she felt was the same instinctual fear the dinosaurs may have felt when that meteor hit. It was the fear of a species that might soon find themselves extinct. That kind of fear could make you do some funny things. It could make you do things that you might otherwise never do – like make a military alliance with the people that you hated... while also trying to get your hands on a stockpile of nuclear arms to blow those same people off the face of the earth.

It had also made her begin to wonder if, perhaps, she had been right about him. The secrets, and the lies, and the reason for all the religious zealotry – was it all to provide a reason for him being able to live as long as he had, and survived the things he did? Did he do it because he was afraid what humans might do it they found out the truth? So many thoughts and questions she'd wanted to ask him, but never got the chance. Her leader, her best friend, turned on her – and she didn't know why! Well, she knew, but she couldn't believe that he'd actually think she would do such a thing.

In fact, she had been stunned that he didn't see through it right away. She had been in dire straights in Australia, begging for reinforcements when Ajay had severed her link to the 'Legendary Insurgent'. How the hell could she possibly have launched an assault on Temple Prime with any hope of success? If she'd had those forces, she would have sent them to Australia. Why couldn't he have seen that? Why did he believe so strongly that she had dared to betray him? Even Ajay, when it came down to it, had admitted that even though the IFF codes of the rogue troops matched hers... he wasn't sure what was going on.

Ajay had just wanted what was best for the Brotherhood; she believed him when he said that. He was a good soldier; loyal to Kane and his commander to a fault. She didn't hate him for what happened. She couldn't. Per the circumstances, he'd done the right thing. Still, it was Kane that had made the final, rash, decision. Forgiving him, if it ever happened, would take time. Time was what she didn't have though. The gun came up, the shot came, searing pain in her chest followed, and then... nothing. Blackness. Silence. Numbness. She was dying, and she knew it. Slowly the pain dulled to an ache as her body started to shut down. Her mind was fuzzy and it was hard to think, much less focus on anything. Then, suddenly, there was pain again, as if the wound was new once more – and there were voices. They all sounded kinda like Charlie Brown's teacher, but one was definitely Russian.

A moment passed, and then there was the muffled wail of a siren and she could tell she was being lifted. Her somewhat renewed senses didn't last long though. While she was being carried, she finally slipped into total unconsciousness; her body out of energy. She thought she was finally at her end – so when her body suddenly awoke, eyes flying open and lungs pulling in the cleanest air that had ever been in them, she was shocked. Quickly she tried to sit up, looking around in a panic. She had no idea where she was, and for all she knew it could have been a facility for making Nod's new cyborgs. The "Marked of Kane." She'd never enjoyed the thought of becoming one of those... _things_.

Then, as fast as she'd come to, there were strong hands gripping her upper arms and shoulders, forcing her back down against the bed. She pushed against who or what was trying to hold her down, thrashing and flailing for dear life... until she heard it.

"Kilian!" Her name; shouted right into her face – and she recognized the voice. It was older, gruff, but she knew that voice; she'd heard it only minutes ago. Her eyes had closed when she was grabbed and forced down, but now, as her body stilled, she slowly opened her eyes. Looking down at her, still gripping her shoulders, was a man she recognized. His face was wrinkled, skin paler than she would have ever imagined, but still held that natural sun-kissed tan that came from having grown up in the outback. His eyes were stern, and his hair... _gray_. He was old now, somehow, and she couldn't stop herself. Slowly her hands rose, tracing the lines on his face; as if, somehow, the touch would let her accept that it was real.

"A-_Ajay_...?" She knew it was him, even as an old man he was as recognizable as ever. The cocky smirk that came to his lips only served to confirm it. It was then that her mind began to fire, and other questions came flooding in. "Where am I? What happened? Why aren't I dead? Was I in a coma? For how long?"

After the last question, which was only the last of the verbal barrage because he put a hand over her mouth, he spoke softly. "It's been fifty years, Kilian." Slowly he lowered his hand, but when he saw that look of shock, he put it back over her mouth before she could say anything. "And no, you weren't in a coma."

Odd as it was, that was what put her at pause, and got Ajay to lower his hand. "Then...?" She wasn't sure what to ask him now, so the word simply hung in the air.

Ajay's hand came up once more, and this time Kilian glared at him before it even got anywhere near her mouth. However, this time it was only meant to motion for her to wait. "Hold on. Let me answer your other questions first; then I'll explain. Give an old man a chance." A small smile came to her lips as she watched him pull a chair over next to the bed. She could tell by the indentation of the cushion that someone had been sitting in it for some time; likely him.

_Was he worried about me...?_ She wondered silently.

"Alright then..." He began as he sat next to her bed, "...as far as where you are, you're in a private room of a medical bay on a base in Moscow, Russia. As for what happened... war's over. Put into incredibly simplified terms, GDI and Nod worked together to fix the planet, and Kane ascended with his 'most loyal' followers." He paused then, shortly, trying to think of how to say the next bit, "That last question isn't as easy to answer as I wish it was."

"Be blunt, Ajay. I took a bullet; I can take a little bit of news." She said softly. She was somewhat surprised that they were being so civil to one another. Every other time they'd practically been at each other's throats. Now... it was like he cared about how he spoke to her. It was odd, but she wasn't about to complain about it.

"Okay... um... for starters, the history books say died." He paused, looking at her and letting that sink in, "You're only alive right now because of... a time machine."

Kilian was quiet, but slowly tilted her head down, as if looking at him over invisible glasses. "A _time machine_?"

"Yeah... That's why I'm an old bastard and you look..." He glanced over her quickly, "...God, better than I would have ever admitted back then."

She smirked at that, though didn't think on it much. Right now she had more important things to worry about. Instead she found herself wondering something. "Since Kane is gone, does that mean that you...?"

Ajay shook his head, "Not me. I didn't even know until some Corporal came with a message for me to come in here."

"Then who...?"

"Viktor Saveli."

"Saveli... why is that name familiar?"

"His old man was one of the GDI grunts that stole Kane's bomb."

"Ah... but wait, if he's GDI, why go back and save _me_?"

"He switched sides."

"Oh. Well, makes as much sense as time travel and aliens, I suppose." She shrugged a bit.

Ajay shook his head. "You don't know the half of it."

Kilian tilted her head slightly, looking at Ajay curiously. "What do you mean by that, exactly?"

Ajay was quiet for a moment before he took out a small hand held computer uplink. "Hope your eyes are good, because you have some catching up to do. There's a few things that you probably should know about the future. Being that you're a civilian now, you need to know the common knowledge-"

"Wait..." Kilian held up a hand, stopping him as she took the uplink, "...what do you mean I'm a civilian? I still hold my rank inside the Brotherhood, or at least I should... shouldn't I?"

"You would... _if_ there was a Brotherhood still."


	9. Chapter 9

Half an hour went by quickly, though with the silence between them it seemed to Ajay that it might last an eternity. When finally she put down the hand held uplink, he looked at her curiously, waiting for her to speak. She didn't. Kilian didn't say a single word for the longest time. He was about tosay something, and as if she could sense it, she finally said one word.

"Kapput." Her voice came out in a low monotone, soft and defeated.

"What?" He questioned.

"It's over, Ajay. Everything." She spoke quietly, and then looked to the man seated at her bedside. "Everything I knew... is gone. All gone."

Ajay stared for a moment, then lowered his gaze. He couldn't say she was wrong, but surely there was something else... right? Looking at her once more, he spoke. "Not everything. Surely there has to be something you can do. Somewhere you can go, right? You weren't always in the Brotherhood, were you?"

"No, I wasn't, but I'm not going to go back to that brothel, either. I don't even know if it still exists." The look that swept across Ajay's face at the words made Kilian roll her eyes. "I wasn't one of the girls on the menu, Ajay."

"Oh. I see. Then why were you there...?"

Kilian went quiet, but soke in reply. "It's where I was born." The curious look and headtilt told her that he wanted more information, so she sighed and continued. "It was a Yellow Zone in Germany, near the Austrian border. GDI hadn't adopted the zoning idea yet when I was born, but that was the best way to describe it. My mother never had much formal education, and the brothel madam had known her a long time; convinced her to work there. A few years went by, everything was fine, and then one night a GDI Staff Sergeant came in; his unit was stationed nearby, and he was on leave. Well, he picked my mom, they had sex, but they used protection. Night after night, for almost a month, he kept coming back. Started romancing her. Even said he loved her, at one point. She believed him. Bought into the 'happily-ever-after' fairytale bullshit. Eventually he convinced her to stop using protection with him."

Ajay's mood turned sour, and it showed on his face. The former Heir of Nod briefly wondered why, but pressed on with her tale.

"Lo and behold, a week before he's meant to ship out, back to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, back to a Blue Zone, she finds out she's pregnant. She asked him to get her a way to go with him so we could be a family after I was born. He told her no. Said he didn't want to 'play husband to some whore just because she has a brat'."

"You know, I've never never thought a GDI soldier should die for being a GDI soldier. I'm not the type to think that way. They were our enemy. We fought. It was war, and people die in war." Ajay said slowly, his tone measured, "And the two of us might not have gotten along well back then... but I hope that bastard died, Kilian. He deserved it."

Kilian smirked slightly, "Oh, he got what he deserved." When Ajay gave her that curious look, she continued. "When my mother was thirty-four, and I was sixteen, there were minor skirmishes in that Yellow Zone. This was after Cabal was defeated. GDI, Nod; even the Forgotten got in the mix. Eventually GDI forces pulled back, Nod held its position because the Forgotten had obliterated their overland supply lines and collapsed their transport tunnels, and the Forgotten themselves claimed the area. Unfortunately for us 'smooth skins', the mutants didn't have the technology for keeping the tiberium growth in check, and that Yellow Zone quickly became part of the Red Zone that it bordered. My mother fell ill with tiberium poisoning not long after, and so did a few of the other girls.

"Well, we knew the mutants couldn't help us. GDI had retreated too far away to be of help. Our only option was Nod; out town had ended up trading with the local base. Everyone else was too afraid to go though. Afraid the mutant raiders would get them, or that Nod's troops would shoot on sight." She shook her head, "I wasn't any braver. I was just more desperate. Ended up running all the way to the base without a weapon and only this cobbled-together bunch of clothes; jeans, boots, some old band t-shirt, a trenchcoat, and this safety mask over my mouth - as if that would make the air cleaner somehow." She actually laughed then, softly.

"I was just about to the gate when one of those old laser turrets popped up out of the ground. I jumped behind this boulder and crouched down, but it knew right where I was and wouldn't stop firing. Eventually these four guards were sent out. I didn't even realize they were there until I noticed that the laser had stopped. I started to uncurl from the little ball I was in - and then just stopped and stared up at the four soldiers like a deer in the headlights. I'd never had a gun pointed at me before that. Thankfully, the leader of them recognized me from his last supply run and asked me why I was there. I told him, but only then did I learn that the base wasn't equipped to handle cases of tiberium poisoning. They had some of the old Chem Trooper suits, but that was about it.

"However, they took me to see the base commander anyway; he was a good man, always friendly to locals that weren't openly hostile, and after GDI pulled out he even took down a couple mutant raiding parties that hit the town. Anyway, he confirmed what I'd already been told, but also gave me the option of waiting until their next supply drop came through; said I could catch a ride somewhere that could help, so I waited."

It was then that Ajay chimed in. "So what was your first time on a Nod base like?"

"It was odd. Some of the time you could hardly tell it was a true Nod base. I mean, the infantry uniforms and the banners were a dead give-away, but there was a lot of comshodded-together equipment, too. It halfway looked like an old GLA base had been fortified by regular Nod troops from the first war, and then got transfered to a new commander in the second. GLA Command Center, barracks, and market, an old Nod communications center, airfield, and repair depot, and the only more modern things there were the helipad, Commander's Harpy, and the base defenses - our newer wall design and the laser turrets; though even those were backed up with the old crew-served cannon and rocket emplacements."

Letting Ajay picture the base for a moment, Kilian paused, thinking about a couple of other details of her tale - though the most exemplary detail that came to mind was that of the base's tanks.

"I suppose the best way to sum up the base is with its choice of armor. They had light tanks from the first war, but they were heavily modified. Three Scorpion Rockets were mounted on the right side of the turret, the rocket pods off a GLA buggie were mounted on the left side of the turret, a chaingun was mounted in the hull, and an old Humvee's remote controlled Heavy MG turret was mounted just in front of the tank commander's hatch."

"Sounds pretty badass for one of those old tanks. Where'd they get all the old equipment though?" Ajay asked curiously.

"I found out later that they were all that remained of Nod's original First Armored Division. Served with distinction in every conflict from our little insurrection as the GLA up through the Second Tiberium War. By the time that the third war rolled around though, they were barely a battalion and were relegated to being instructors in our Armored Corps. Cabal had done a real number on them during the Firestorm Crisis - hence the ancient, modified tanks." She waved a hand then, "Anyway, that was just to give you an idea of where I was."

"Right, of course; continue."

"When my two days were up, the transport arrived. Thankfully, the base commander sent a couple officers with me to make my presence official business. Little did I know that the closest base with the technology to help was Temple Prime, in Serajevo."

Ajay blinked. "Temple Prime?"

Kilian nodded, "At the time it was under reconstruction. GDI being otherwise occupied after the Firestorm Crisis, it was the perfect time to rebuild. Of course, back then there was little more than some perimeter defenses and the beginnings of the temple complex itself."

"Ah, yeah, the earliy days..." Ajay trailed off, nodding slightly.

"Mhm... Anyway, the supply plane landed, and the officers led me into the temple itself, down to the medical facility; what of one there was at the time. When we reached it, there were five figures in hooded cloaks, all with black masks on; I didn't know what was said between them all though. Still don' officers with me switched to their internal comm equipment to talk to them. Soon enough though, all eight of us headed back out to the supply plane; the hooded figures carrying some equipment with them. The flight back was relatively short thanks to a tailwind, and upon landing at the base we took three buggies back into town.

"A few hours went by, and all the girls were responding well to the treatment... except my mother. She was too far gone for them to help her. Apparently they were performing tiberium infusions to conteract the active afflictions. My mother's lungs were bad though. The infusion was more likely to increase the rate of the spread instead of turning it around. There was nothing that they could do but make her comfortable and... well, put her out of her misery. They told her all of this, and she chose the latter after one of the men removed his mask and assured her that I would be taken care of." She smiled faintly, though sadly, at the memory. "That man was Kane."

"So... Kane adopted you?" Ajay asked, and Kilian laughed softly - if a bit bitterly - at the notion.

"Oh, heavens no." She replied, shaking her head. "He took me in, saw to it that I was given a proper education, became my mentor and tutor for a while - taught me philosophy and how to fight." She went quiet for a moment, as if lost in her memories, but continued again shortly. "Admittedly, I suppose he was the closest thing to a real father that I'd ever had, and I recognized that even back then. When he told me that he thought I should go through the Brotherhood's 'Youth Program', I didn't even hesitate."

"Youth Program?" Ajay asked curiously, "Wasn't that the Black Hand's early-age training program?"

"It was. For their assassins." Kilian nodded, "I ended up learning everything a Nod assassin would learn - even how to use one of their foldable powered gliders. It was almost like being a high-tech ninja... though I was also one of the lucky few that learned how to use a laser sniper rifle."

"A what?"

"We never fielded them, for some strange reason, but we did develope a laser sniper rifle after the first war. It was based on the laser rifle used by the stealth troops. Ended up having all the power of a laser turret, though each battery pack only gave you one shot. Was still vastly superior to a regular sniper rifle though - all the range and lethality, but with pinpoint accurracy and no recoil. Another bonus was that there was no flight time for a bullet at long range; no matter the range it was effectively instantaneous. It was also silent and the beam was clear. Impossible to tell where the shot came from once the target hit the ground. The only downside was how bulky and heavy it ended up being. It was worth it, no doubt, but a suppressed twenty-two caliber rifle could kill someone just as dead." She paused then, as if having a small revelation, "Come to think of it, that might be why it was only sed in covert ops for a short time and never got fielded for general use."

Ajay nodded, "Would make sense. I can't imagine those rifles were cheap."

"Oh, believe me, they weren't." Kilian chuckled, "Anyway, by the time graduation came, I was at the top of my class - and the top four students are given a mission to be completed before their graduation ceremony. Ours was interesting. Turns out, my father was being promoted to Major. Apparently he'd ranked up quickly during the second war and the Firestorm Crisis. He wasn't our primary target though. He was just a target of opportunity. Our primary target was a GDI VIP that was attending his promotion ceremony. Our secondary target was a GDI division commander; some two star general with a chest full of medals that had never actually been in combat. He was the awarding officer. All other GDI officers were tertiary; optional. Long story short, we offed the VIP and the General, and then I jammed a Wakazashi through my father's throat - after I made sure he knew who I was, and why I was killing him."

Ajay was quiet for a moment, then looked at her. "I should never piss you off, should I?"

"Probably not a good idea." Kilian laughed, "But... yeah. After that, and graduation, I went to officer's school and got my commission; started out as a First Lieutenant Had that silver bar by the time I was twenty-one, as well as a college education. The rest is history." She shrugged then, "So... do you have any clothes for me? I feel like going and getting drunk."

Without hesitation, Ajay reached down and picked a duffle bag up off the floor; putting it on the bed. "There you go, princess."

Kilian rolled her eyes and opened the bag, but stopped when she saw the old AC/DC t-shirt and jeans. "These are..." She slowly looked to Ajay, "How did you get my clothes?"

"After the battle at Ayers," He said quietly, "I was part of the cleanup crew. I was the one to clean out your quarters." He stopped for a short moment, letting that hang in the air between them, and then added. "It was odd... nobody ever used the room. I mean, nothing was wrong with it; it was one of the ones that was completely intact, actually... but... our dear 'Legendary Insurgent'... he never stayed in it. He once said to me that it didn't feel right." He took a breath, "I think he believed you were innocent. That's why he drug things out like he did. Instead of charging like normal, he had the men advance, dig in, and then once they were fully dug in, advance again. Used the excuse of it being 'fallback positions' in case something went wrong. I think he was hoping that if he drug things out long enough, Kane might see reason." He shook his head, "I wish he had."

Kilian smiled sofly, "It's the past Ajay. Over fifty years in the past... it's alright." She smirked then, "But... you kept my clothes? Really?" Kilian asked, "Why?"

"I kept everything, actually." Ajay shrugged, "I don't know what compelled me to keep it all. Throwing your stuff agay felt... wrong somehow. So, I boxed it all up and kept it in a stoarge unit." He leaned closer then, smirking just a bit, "And I mean _everything._"

"Ajay!" Kilian snapped, blushing furiously and using the t-shirt to swat at him.

Ajay just laughed, "Oh Jesus, are you really that embarrassed over a vibrator? A lot of women have them!"

"It's called a personal massager," She said while whipping the shirt at him, "And I'm not embarrassed by it, but by the fact that you're talking about it like that!"

Ajay laughed harder, "What are you, a virgin?"

Suddenly the shirt stopped hitting him, and when he looked at her, she was red as a tomato, looking away from him.

"Wait... no way... really?"

"Shut up Ajay..." She said quietly, clenching her eyes shut as she continued to blush, "I never really had time for a relationship during most of my life, alright?"

Slowly Ajay reached over, resting a hand on her knee, "I'm sorry, Kilian. I shouldn't have teased you. I just never expected to hear that... Doesn't seem real to think that no man ever tried to romance you."

A faint smile came to her lips then, and she took his hand gently. "I said during _most_ of my life. I did at one point... when I was officer's school. He and I were dating when we finished and got our commissions." She looked down at her lap then, covered by the bedsheets. "He was leading a platoon along the border of Forgotten territory. They got jumped. The base's comm equipment switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree with radio chatter coming in from damn near anyone with a field radio, requesting reinforcements. We even had a live feed so we could watch as everything happened. I convinced our Company Commander to commit our other two platoons, I was the Company Executive Officer, but the base commander wouldn't have it... so we all got to watch as that platoon was torn to pieces. Second Lieutenant David Calahan, my boyfriend, was the last one to die."

She swallowed thickly and continued, "He didn't run; he could have, he had a lot of chances, but he never ran - not from anything. He stood his ground, after his assault rifle ran out of ammunition, with a combat knife and his sidearm. His side and leg were torn open by bullets from the troops in the first wave of the ambush, but he held right where he was all the same. Shot a Tiberium Fiend point blank in the brainpan with his sidearm. Had to empty the entire magazine to kill it. Then the actual troops, or what was left of them, showed up before he could reload. Final stage muations. He tossed the empty service pistol and slashed one across the neck, stabbed another in the heart, and then... they ripped him limb from limb like a bunch of fucking zombies in an old horror movie. They weren't really human at that point, I don't think. After that though, I just kept away from people."

"I can't say I blame you." Ajay said softly, then offered a small smile, "But what about now? Maybe you could find someone in civilian life. Worth a shot, isn't it?"

"We'll see." Kilian replied softly, letting go of his hand, and grabbing up the shirt again. "For now, I'm gonna get dressed, and then you're going to buy me some drinks... in exchange for me not kicking your ass over you getting me shot." She grinned, "So, are you just going to sit there, or are you going to give me some privacy?" She asked as she pulled the sheets off her long legs and moved to stand.

"I think I'm gonna sit right here." Ajay smirked. Kilian just grinned back.

"Dirty old man." She smirked as she stood, and before he could retort, the hospital gown she wore slipped from her form. At this, he remained silent.


	10. Chapter 10

((Alright people, this chapter is kind of a backstory chapter, but it's told through the characters. A bit of a history lesson on how things went in this version of the C&C universe, being that I'm pulling it all into one nice little package to use. I do hope you all find it interesting, and if you get curious about something, please do feel free to ask me questions! ^-^ Also, reviews are awesome . They're encouraging. . And come on people, I've been writing these last few chapters out by hand, and then typing them up when I have time. . I would very much enjoy a pat on the back, or something. Please? . I'll do the puppy eyes if I have to, damn it. Don't think I won't!))

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==X==X==X==

Hundreds of feet below the surface of Moscow, beneath the once-proud Red Square and the ever-symbolic Kremlin, row after row of racks, shelves, and stacks of crates stretched into the distance for what seemed like miles. Massice chambers connectedby kilometers of catacombs that the Soviets had constructed long ago. Everything from rations, war materials, and water, to fully functioning vehicles and equipment was stored down beneath the modern city streets.

"Where are we going, Viktor?" Kane asked curiously as they headed into a connecting catacomb; they had gotten off of a supply elevator only moments ago.

"Sub-levels four through ten." Viktor said as they walked, "One two, and three are all dedicated to supplying the base if it were cut off from supplies somehow. Both our primary command bases are setup like this - here in Moscow, and the one in Siberia that overseas our Tiberium Mining operations. GDI has never been openly hostile toward us, but who knows what will happen, right?"

"Very true, Viktor." Kane said, then paused in his stride briefly - having realized something odd about what Viktor had just said. "Wait a moment... 'Tiberium Mining' operations?"

"Yes, Kane, you heard me right. We still have tiberium. I managed to extract enough of it from blood samples of those that went through tiberium infusions, and who remained on Earth when you left, that I was able to culture it in a lab. After that, it was only a question of control. We're able to do that by using combinations of Nod and GDI technology, as well as information from the Tacitus. With the ability to predict when it will evolve and control its spread, the likelihood of an ecological disaster is incredibly small."

"Who does the mining?" Kane asked curiously, then glanced up as he heard a rushing, churning, muffled 'whooshing' sound overhead. They were passing under the Moskva River now.

"We use nanites for that. They use harmonic-resonance micro-emitters to break down the tiberium on-site. We don't even need a refinery. The useful material is transported through a reverse-engineered warp gate to a collection area and the tiberium itself is either reused in the mine or destroyed using those same sonic waves." Viktor grinned then, "Better, we managed to engineer the green strain into the blue strain, and we're pulling almost fifty percent more than what we used to out of those mines."

"Well, aren't you the little Rockefeller?" Kane chuckled, "What's the annual profit?"

"Five hundred twenty billion pounds sterling." Viktor smirked, and while impressed, he could tell that Kane was curious about something else. "What?"

"Pounds Sterling?" Kane asked, head tilted and a brow raised, "This is Russia; you don't use Rubles?"

"As a local currency, yes, but the accepted international currency is the British Sterling Pound. The old 'credits' system lost its usefulness after the war since it was based on however much the GDI government said it was worth. Same goes for the old US dollar - totally worthless. So... it was either the old Chinese Renminbi, or the British Pound. Both were based on silver, but the British Sterling Pound was more widely known before tiberium came along, and thus it won out as an international trade currency."

"Ah, I see." Kane nodded, "So how much profit have the mines made in total?"

"Gross or net?"

"Net."

"About ten-point-four-one trillion pounds over the last twenty years. Quadruple that if you add in the natural gas, petrol, water, electricity, food, tools, vehicles, and manpower that surrounding countries have paid us for. Of course, S.S.I. paid for alot out of its own coffers too - something GDI and the Idris Corporation don't understand, I think. Though, it is an odd combination of capitalism and communism, I suppose."

They stopped then as they reached what appeared to be a blast door. Opening a small panel, Viktor pressed a few of the numbered buttons, and it slowly began opening; sliding sideways and retracting into the rock as Viktor shut the panel.

"What was it that you did while I was gone?"

"Not only did I rebuild the old USSR; I went in and rebuilt the nations around it. Classic enemies and allies alike, and we did it for free. Every nation from Poland down to Egypt and all the way over to China was given aid. More recently the rest of the North African nations have requested that same aid, and we're giving it to them. GDI and Idris had already rebuilt much of the Americas, Western Europe, Australia, and everything south of the Sahara."

When the door was finally open, they stepped through. Once on the other side, Viktor opened another panel and pressed a large red button; the foor beginning to close as he shut that panel once more and they stepped away.

"So who is taking care of the Pacific?" Kane asked as they headed for the next elevator. Thankfully, this one wasn't far off from the blast door.

"Ah... well, that's a rather interesting developement, actually." Viktor began slowly, "The power in the Pacific is the Empire of the Rising Sun. While GDI and Nod were beating eachother senseless in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Australia and the Middle East, the Japanese had infiltrated both their ranks in every way they could. They were studying, learning how to use technology from both sides and digging through old archives. It wasn't anything new, either.

"They'd been infiltrating both sides all the way back to the Allies and Soviets - mostly because of the Russian annexation of Manchuria during Stalin's reign, and the Chinese Revolution that Romanov supported in return for war materials. They started syping on the Allies during the conflict with Yuri, and just kept doing it. Once you 'ascended,' they called all their spies, some of whom were officers that had been part of GDI and Nod command structures, back to Japan. They'd studied enough.

"While GDI and SSI were rebuilding their areas, the Empire went out and rebuilt the Pacific - laying claim to it as they did. They even bought Hawaii from GDI. Didn't even pay much for it, at least not compared to what someone might have had to pay when it was a US state. The islands had been abandoned a long time ago, and Pearl Harbor was falling apart. GDI practically gave it away."

"Considering Japan's history with the West, I shouldn't be too surprised." Kane began as they boarded the open-air supply elevator and started heading down. "During Stalin's reign, Japan and the United States were thick as thieves, and the Allies practically pumped fuel right into the tanks of every Japanese plane, ship, and ground vehicle used to conquer China during the late 1930's and early 1940's." Kane shook his head a bit, "Strange how removing one man from history at just the right moment can change so much."

Viktor nodded, and then went quiet for a moment, looking at Kane. "Come to think of it... how do _you_ remember what would have happened? Nobody else does."

"Actually, two other people knew. Einstein, and his chief assistant. His assistant was one of my men, and when I learned what Einstein intended to do, I saw it as an opportunity. I had a temporal chamber constructed. When I got word that Einstein was about to do the real jump, I got in it and waited until word came that it was done. I had to relearn roughly two decades of history, but it was worth it."

"So what were the primary differences in the timeline, before the Soviets invaded Europe?"

"Well, you've seen my logs, so I assume you mean the Pacific; but I'll give you a quick overview of Europe and the Middle East. Without Adolf Hitler, the German Republic eventually stabalized thanks to foreign aid from the United States and a regulated war debt plan with Britain and France after World War One. The Soviet was machine was able to build up unchecked and seized Poland in 1947; the Allies were wary, but overall did not yet have any way to force the Soviets out of Poland; thus they began their military buildup.

"The primary difference in the Middle East was that the ancient nation of Israel was never ressurrected - No Hitler; no Third Reich, no Holocaust, no Israel, and Palestine retained all territory to the Mediterranean Sea. The Middle East would be a united front against Soviet agression in the first war against the Soviets. The Allies would lose the first war, but the European governments had relocated to the new United Nations building in New York City before it was over, along with a few retreating military divisions.

"That's when the United States and Canada turned their production over to wartime production, and used Greenland as a jumping off point, before setting up on Iceland, and then retaking Britain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. From there they kept pushing in until they were able to attack Moscow from the North. The Allied Air Force and Navy obliterated their Soviet counterparts, and the Russians were overwhelmed. That's why the United States was their primary target when Romanov and Yuri were in power.

"Now, I'm sure you knew most of that already, but it sets the stage for what happened in the Pacific. You see, in the original timeline, Japan was part of the Axis Powers and bombed Pearl Harbor because the United States started and oil embargo in support of China, which was aligned with the Allies. However, with no Axis Powers, Japan was acting alone. China's northern neighbor - Russia - was a classic enemy of the Japanese. Thus, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese allied with the Soviet Union - promising to return the favor later if they won the war. They actually started to push the Japanese back to the coast, as Japanese supply lines were being hit regularly by partisans when they were already starting to run low.

"A Japanese delegation went to the United States and toured Europe, telling of what the Chinese had agreed to do for the Soviets if they won, and the Allies threw their weight behind Japan. It took over a decade, but the Japanese officially declared Victory in China in 1946. They'd hoped that without China's aid, the Soviets might rethink their future plans. Unfortunately for them, the Soviets knew there was still great unrest in China - and just to make the Japanese think twice about any possible campaign against them, they annexed Manchuria in 1947 and stationed elements of Russia's Eighth Army there. Stalin didn't care about having it. It was a display of power. The Japanese, who even with full Allied support, had barely defeated the Chinese who were using Soviet equipment - and didn't dare risk an actual conflict with the Russian military."

"So what you're saying," Viktor began as the supply elevator stopped, and they stepped off, "is that the Second Sino-Japanese War was one big proxy war for the Allies and Soviets?"

"Essentially, yet, and it's one reason the Allies might have lost as easily as they did during the first half of the war."

"What do you mean?"

"The Japanese victory in China gave the Allies hope for a future victory over the Soviets. It made them overconfident; even made them think the Soviets might not attack. They were wrong. Not to mention the facts of the sheer amount of equipment and supplies sent to the Japanese rather than being held for their own future war efforts, and that they hoped the Japanese would open a second front against the Russians in Asia - which never happened. They were already spread thin in China just trying to control it; they couldn't have opened a second front even if they wanted to."

"In other words, helping Japan might have cost them the first half of the war?"

"Yes and no. Either way the allies were probably going to lose, at least the first half. The difference is that if China hadn't been out of the war, they might not have been able to retake Europe."

"Ah... so short term it hurt, but long term it helped?"

"Precisely." Kane nodded, "It would also provide for the beginning of the Third World War - and attached to that, the Third Sino-Japanese War. Western History tends to overlook it, but Romanov began supplying equipment and supplies to the Chinese rebels, and after the invasion of the United States in the 1970's, Russian troops rushed in to quickly liberate China from the Japanese. In return, the Chinese honored their old alliance and started producing equipment and supplies for the Soviets.

They didn't get in the war as a combatant, but they are the reason that the Soviet army seemed to have endless tanks, even as they Allies marched on Moscow. It's also why China became a short-lived superpower in the late 1980's - they had all that old Russian equipment and designs. Even learned to make Russian nuclear missiles and MiG fighters. Of course, they modified the designs, but it was fairly easy to see that the Chinese Overlord tank was a close cousin to the Soviet Apocalypse, and the older Mammoth. The PLA just customized the vehicles to suit their own combat doctrine. Meanwhile, the Japanese held back on their home islands and other holdings in the Pacific - doing just as you said before; spying, watching, and learning from the rest of the world. I admit, it does make me curious what else they might be up to now."

"Hopefully, nothing." Viktor said quietly, but now he wasn't so sure how fine everything was.

It was then that Kane, suddenly, seemed to be fulled with a youthful energy and rushed off ahead. Viktor's eyes trailed after him, and he soon saw why Kane had run ahead of him. In a clearing ahead of them, in the rear left corner, sat Legion's old core - still hooked to a hologram emitter and its control terminals. It had a self-contained generator, and was already powered up. Jogging to catch up with the once-prophet, Viktor arrived by his side as Legion spoke.

"Admiral Kane, it would appear that although I was able to transfer into my primary core, my date links are no longer functional." The deep voiced Nod AI spoke, a reverberating authority lacing his tone.

"There is a reason for this, Legion." Kane replied, "It is as we predicted. Nod is no more."

"Tell me Admiral, where does my core reside?" The AI asked, "And who is...?" The supercomputer paused mid question, studying Viktor for a moment. "Ah... Viktor Saveli. Interesting to see you. You've aged. Tell me..." The AI focussed on him then, "Is my blind, deaf, and dumb state _your_ doing?" Legion asked, the blue holographic face contorted in rather obvious annoyance at its own ineffectiveness. "_Well?_"

However, Viktor was not phased by the supercomputer's look as many others would have been. No, he glared back at the hologram, and spoke with an even, but authoritative, tone. "Listen to me, you clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous _junk_; were it not for me, you would be nothing but parts strewn all over the floor right now. I could have left you that way after the tech boys were done with you. Instead, I reassembled you. _Remember that_."

The AI was quiet for a moment, as if shocked that anyone would speak to it in such a manner, but then it looked to Kane. "This one is not so fragile as the rest, Admiral Kane."

Kane chuckled a bit at that. "No, no he isn't." He glanced at Viktor. "It's that Russian blood of his." Then he turned to face the man. "Do you have some way of linking Legion to your grid down here? I'd hate to have to tell him everything verbally."

"Of course; one moment." Viktor nodded, tapping the screen on his wrist-mounted uplink.

"You want something, comrade?" Dante asked as his wire-frame face appeared on the screen, "I hope it's good. I think I just about had EVA laughing."

When Kane, and even Legion, looked at him with curious - but baffled - expressions, Viktor sighed. "Don't ask. Just... don't ask." He shook his head a bit, "Dante, would you please-" Viktor stopped speaking abruptly when his eyes fell on the screen again, and he saw that the background behind Dante's face was the pirate version of the Hammer and Sickle that Dante had shown him during the rescue operation. "Oh my gods... you _actually_ did that..." Viktor sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Really, Dante?"

"Oh what, so I can't decorate my room now?" The Russian AI retorted.

"Dante, you don't _have_ a..." Viktor trailed, sensing the looked he was getting from Kane and the other supercomputer. "Nevermind... Anyway, patch Legion into our data links. Get your cousin up to speed, will you?"

"On it." Dante gave a nod, and hooked his comm channels into Legion's frequency. All at once the Nod supercomputer was hooked into everything. If Dante knew it, Legion knew it, save for a few choice things that Dante knew Viktor wanted as a surprise. "How's that, cousin?"

"Much better. Thank you..." Legion hesitated, glancing to Kane. His creator shrugged, leaving it to him, and the machine finished tentatively, "..._cousin_."

"Alright. Legion, do any of our old bases still exist?" Kane asked, "Preferably, ones not in GDI hands." He clarified, and the supercomputer began running through old communications links, much the same as EVA had once done when GDI's funding had been cut. Just like EVA, only one link was still active - however, instead of Las Vegas, this one was routed through Hong Kong. When accessed, the link revealed that a single base's beacon was still active; a holographic map the appeared where Legion's face had been.

The map was divided with three colors; gold for GDI territory, blue for SSI territory, and orange for Imperial territory. Amidst the large blue swath that covered North Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, there was one small patch of red - a tiny blip on the map in the middle of the Ukraine.

"Admiral Kane, this base will be suitable for our needs... assuming our host doesn't mind." The computer spoke, and before Kane even began to look at Viktor, the man replied with an abrupt 'of course'. Thus, the self-aware AI continued. "The base's history dates back to the Second Great War. It was constructed as primarily an underground facility for the production of vehicles, weapons, and supplies. Before the outbreak of the Third Great War it was used as a storage facility. During the war it was a supply and command base. It was a secret base in the First Tiberium War, and in the Second Tiberium War it was a missile production and aircraft testing facility.

"It is where GDI's stolen Disruptor Tank design was meant to be sent for evaluation. During the Third Tiberium War it was again used as a production and command base. Due to being underground it survived the destruction of the European Red Zone after the Serajevo Incident. By the time of the Ascention Conflict it was the site of a well defended TCN hub, but the facility beneath was shut down. It has not been disturbed since, according to the monitoring equipment's logs. It should have everything required to establish a presence, repair the _Saving Grace_, and house the survivors."

"Very well, send this information to the ship and make sure the repair crews have it operational as soon as possible. If Colonel James could repair a downed GST with a few TCN hubs and scrap metal, we can fix that ship good enough to make it mobile again."

"By your command, Admiral."

Viktor piped up then, "SSI engineers and technicians are at your disposal as well. In the meantime, let's head back to the surface, and you tell me more about what you intend to do over a few drinks."

Kane smiled, "And after that, you can point me in the direction of a razor. I believe a shave is in order."


	11. Chapter 11

Silence filled the airwaves between Hammerfest and the stealth transport. The prototype aircraft had lifted off over an hour ago, and had been on radio silence ever since it crossed the border. The GDI base personnel had already put the bird out of their minds, but the pilot was anxious to get out of SSI territory. He knew good and well that they were spying on a cordial nation, and if they were caught it could very well mean a much greater problem would arise. The last thing anyone wanted was to give GDI and SSI a reason to beat each other's brains in like GDI and Nod had done for so long.

The commando team had left the transport some minutes ago, and was nearly upon their objective - the old "Scrin" ship. Of course, everyone now knew what real Scrin vessels looked like. That left an interesting question though: if this ship wasn't made by the Scrin... then who made it? It was definitely not originally from Earth. How many more alien races were there, and were any of them friendly? Could any of them be trusted? If one were to believe the words of Hawking, the answers were: "a lot" and "very unlikely" - the second serving as the answer to both of the latter questions. Mobius, when once asked the same questions, had seemed hopeful of it. Now it seemed Hawking was proven right.

When Captain Parker and his team reached the grounds around the crash site, they split into their respective sub-units. Thankfully enough for Parker, finding a way onto the ship wasn't difficult. Once you were up close and personal with it, the large gashes torn open in the vessel's side were easy to see. As soon as he found one that was both large enough to go through, and attached to an interior walkway that wasn't crushed, he made his way inside.

The interior was, suprisingly, not so alien as one might have expected. In fact, the commando noted with interesting, it was similar to a GST. Near the hull were the maintainence access points and reinforcing structures that connected the exterior hull to the interior hull and "body" of the ship. In some ways, it was like how the body of a car was attached to the frame. It was also the same area where the weapons were linked into the ship, and any projectile weapons had their ammunition bunkers. He'd come across one that seemed to be hooked to a missile launcher of some kind or other; the bunker hardly had a dent in it, and the launcher seemed to have been retraced before the eventual crash. Good thing too - it was in a section where, not far away, the two hulls were crushed together. The damn thing had come down _hard_.

After a bit of wandering around, he finally came to an interior bulkhead and made his way into the ship proper. Unsurprisingly, considering what he'd already seen, the halls were illuminated by red emergency alert lights. For an alien spacecraft, it had many touches of common practices on Earth. What he soon spotted on a bit of the ship's interior confirmed his suspicions. On the wall of the hallway he was in was the old GDI insignia - the version used during the Second Tiberium War and Firestorm Crisis. This was the very same ship that had been to Earth before. GDI had been repairing it, obviously, but what had happened? Where had it vanished to for almost seventy years?

Checking a few of the rooms, he found that they were crew quarters; though these actually had a layer of dust - and the lingering smell of paint, a scent that had likely been trapped for as long as the ship had been missing. They held no furniture, no personal items, and nothing of importance except a can and pan of dried paint - with the roller entombed in the once liquid substance. Why was that important to him? It told him he was right. This section of the ship hadn't been touched, much less had anyone in it, in quite some time. Considering the ship's size, however, that wasn't a real surprise. A GST was large enough for the entire crew of an aircraft carrier, plus an entire infantry regiment _and_ all their immediate families. It really hadn't surprised anyone in GDI that Colonel James had gotten her vessel moving again after it was shot down. Even in a histile place like Tin City, it wasn't too difficult.

This ship was almost the same size as a GST, maybe slightly larger, so the fact that not every section of the ship's crew quarters were being used wasn't overly surprising. Even a GST usually didn't have even half of its regular crew quarters filled, much less what was reserved for landing troops. Hell, after the loss of the First Fleet, the Second and Third Fleets were now mostly skeleton crews. Colonel James had only had as many troops as she did thanks to picking up like-minded troops as she went. Moving on, he made his way deeper into the ship, finding more crew quarters - but now in areas that seemed more likely to be inhabited.

These halls had the Brotherhood's old insignia on them. Most doors were inscribed with a name, number, and the Nod scorpion symbol. What he found on this level that intrigued him was the symbol on the armory - it was the symbol of the Black Hand from the First Tiberium War; Nod's elites. Looks like they were relegated to tactical and security forces, if that door was any indication. For a brief moment he thought to enter the armory or the rooms to investigate further, but decided against it. Someone could be in one of those rooms, and the good Captain doubted that any of them probably believed in ghosts. Moving on, he began using the ship's map plaques to find his way. He was heading for the bridge. Of all places, it was the least likely to have anyone guarding it right now.

Thanks tot he signs, it took him mere minutes to find his way to the bridge. Unfortuantely, he had been wrong about nobody guarding it. Not only were there security personnel, but engineers, technicians, and officers present to oversee repairs. It had everything a command center required, and enough personnel to command a brigade in the field. Just with a quick glance he could see two Majors and a Lieutenant Colonel. They were probably here in the stead of their superiors. Lord knew where the higher officers were - probably meeting to discuss what their next move was. The task he faced now would be accessing the ship's computer without anyone noticing.

==X==X==X==

Along the exterior of the vessel, First Lieutenant O'Connell was scanning the guards and weapons of the ship. He'd noted with interest that both SSI MP's and... whoever these guys in the black cloaks and metal masks were... were guarding the ship. The MP's were armed with fairly basic weapons. Elderly AK-74 machinguns were the order of the day, as well as combat knives that could be fixed as bayonettes, and usually a personal sidearm. Nothing special there. They were meant to be cops on a military post, not front line combat troops. They were in friendly territory, so the old weapons were no surprise. The cloaked and masked figures, however, were somewhat unnerving to O'Connell.

Their weapons were obviously much more potent. No magazines, no moving parts but a trigger and sights, and nowhere to change an energy cell - but also, and very obviously, some sort of ranged weapon. Without a magazine to store ammunition, it couldn't be a railgun... but it also couldn't be any energy weapon he could think of if there was no battery pack or power cell to replace. Yet, what else could it be? If it was, that would have to mean some kind of internal power source. He'd scanned them for any kind of radiation, but got nothing. No tiberium rad' signatures, no microfusion, and no chemical could be in that weapon to power it. The weapon was a total unknown, but if it had an internal, non-nuclear, non-tiberium reactor that made enough energy to make it effective... what were the limits on its power?

Worse, in an eerie way, these troops were remeniscent of the Black Hand. Specifically, they looked similar to the Confessors that had once been in the ranks of the Brotherhood. What set them apart from the Black Hand Confessors was their distinct lack of any kind of insignia or color other than black. There were no ranks, no name badges, no unit patches; no military designations of any kind. Black hooded cloak, black armor, back mask, and their weapon; that was it. They stood as still as statues, totally rigid, weapons at the ready - as if, in one swift movement, they might suddenly raise and fire them. The SSI MP's were relaxed, even laughing and joking amongst themselves, but the black-cloaked sentinels stood like stone. It was as if someone put a bunch of Weeping Angels in Darth Vader costumes and stuck blaster rifles in their hands just for kicks.

Finding an analysis of their weapons as a dead end, O'Connell decided that perhaps an alaysis of their armor might prove more insightful to their roll in combat. He was correct in some manner, but baffled in another. Their armor seemed to be made primarily of a dual layer polymer; two thin layers of titanium hafnium carbide with a middle layer of what appeared to be some sort of Kevlar. The odd thing was that this seemed to be backed up with silver coated nanofibers interwoven with the Kevlar and attached to the two polymer layers. A closer analysis of the nanofiber revealed that the fibers were actually made of long strings of nanites that entirely coated the inner portion of the polymer layers where they touched the Kevlar.

O'Connell could only come up with one real explanation for this that made any real sense to him. The armor was designed to self repair whenever it was damaged. The silver coating had a potential explanation as well - silver could deflect radiation; assuming that these suits might actually be similar to Vader's, and thus had a breathing system of their own... they were like an old NBC - Nuclear-Biological-Chemical - protection suit combined with armor. In essence, they were like a slim version of Zone Trooper armor or Commando Armor. Energy signatures from within the suits might even indicate that they were, in fact, a powered armor. Doubtful that they could take the same weapons' fire that a GDI armor could, or augment one's strength to the same extent, and they didn't have jump jets, but... there was also no telling the power their weapons possessed either, or what specific systems they might have.

To O'Connell, this meant that this ship's security force was, most likely, comprised of his peers in whatever service they were with; they were _commandos_. Looking closer, he noted that at their hips were two attachments. Upon inspection he found that one was most definitely a sidearm. The other appeared to be an eight inch long, one inch thick, metal cylinder. Scans detected nanofibers similar to those in the armor were contained inside, and an impressive energy signature as well - little else could be learned. O'Connell chalked it up to likely being another weapon of some kind, but found himself wondering just exactly what it was.

==X==X==X==

Second Lieutenants Zhukov and Baker had quickly discovered that the motor pool near to the downed vessel held, nearly without exception, vehicles denoted with SSI markings and the typical bright red color scheme that was used on units of their 'Civil Defense and Emergency Services' organization. In laymen's terms - the corporate government's rapid reaction military police. The few exceptions were some old Nod vehicles that looked like they might well have been held together with bubble gum and paper clips. The Nod units were battered, beaten, in horrid states of disrepair, and Lieutenant Baker was surprised that they'd been able to be moved long enough to park in the motor pool. Lieutenant Zhukov had laughed, and simply told her never to underestimate Nod's willingness to hold out in a fight. GDI had the brute force... Nod had determination.

Something worthy of note was that the SSI engineers who were deployed with the CDES units had already setup a field repair depot and begun working on those old Nod units to get them at least serviceable. It was somewhat slow going, considering the parts were - at least - twenty-three years old and thus some were being fabricated on the spot, but it was a smooth process. SSI MP's stood and sat around the repair depot, helping when asked, and leaving true security to the black-clad troopers.

It was difficult not to refer to them as "Vaders" due to their general appearance - though rather than just a helmet, Lieutenant Baker pointed out to Zhukov a couple differences. First, they had a hooded cloak instead of a cape, and second, their mask - which was a helmet as well - had no real features. Vader's helmet actually looked like a head, complete with eyes, mouth & nose, and arguably a spot for ears. These were big enough to contain a head, but smooth all the way around. In some manner, they were far more similar to Darth Revan than Darth Vader - which was something that Zhukov was lost on. He'd only ever seen the original trilogy. Baker... well... she was into the expanded universe, and this long conversation went to show how nerdy the young commando was. It also served to keep her mind off her earlier nervousness.

"Alright Baker," Zhukov started, "let's head over to those... escape pods, I guess they are. Let's see if we can get any data out of them."

"Good idea. If we can find one that's still open, I should be able to hook EVA into it. That'll, with luck, get us some intel. Meanwhile, maybe you should run scans of the craft. The old starship didn't have these the last time it was here."

Zhukov gave a nod, and while nobody else could see him, Baker could thanks to the suit's sensors. Soon enough they were on their way, and after about twenty minutes of searching they found what they were looking for. The escape pods weren't overly large. They resembled, in some ways, a large coffin - and the interior could fit, perhaps, four people. It was all rather simple looking. Most of them were automated so that upon landing they would open automatically, and once everyone was out, close the very same way. Most did just that. A few, however, were either damaged on landing or landed in such a way that the automated door couldn't close again.

The particular craft that Zhukov and Baker had found was one of the few that had both come down hard and landed in an odd way. Not only was it damaged, but it landed with the door downward and the servos had it propped open like a metal tent. Lieutenant Baker, being the smaller of the two, and having the most skill with technological interfaces, was the one to crawl under and inside it. Meanwhile, Zhukov remained outside running scans of the small craft. Within about five minutes, Baker had EVA hooked intot he system and gathering data - though mostly it was the ship's communications frequencies and data about the escape pod itself. Apparently, everyone that had been inside this one at least survived.

Outside, Zhukov got a surprise the moment that he'd begun his readings. The hull of the escape pod was heavily irradiated, as if it had been in the vicinity of an atomic blast. At least, the level of the reading would indicate that; the type of radiation was the strange part. It was a tiberium radiation signature that he was detecting, not nuclear, but the only signatures this high had come after the destruction of Temple Prime. This pod had been around during a liquid tiberium detonation? How had it survived? It couldn't possibly had survived in the blast radius, could it?

A whistle came over his comm set. "Zhukov, I'm gonna patch in to their comm frequency; see what we can hear."

"Understood. Maybe we'll get something useful from that."

==X==X==X==

Back on the bridge of the starship, Captain Parker had managed to find an open terminal, but was still working on how to access it. About the time that he figured it out, he heard something that sounded a great deal more important.

"Captain, we have a transmission incoming from Admiral Kane." The vessel's comm officer reported - and Parker's head snapped up at the name.

_'No... not after all this time... It has to be someone else!'_ Parker thought as he watched the officers.

"Patch it through, Mr. Barabus." Came a woman's voice, and with a glance, he spied a tall raven-haired Japanese woman in an officer's uniform - a Nod naval uniform, but with a few modifications. The most noteworthy was that, rather than Nod's sigil as an armpatch, it sported an inverted blue triangle with gold borders and a gold colored trident in the center. The sewn-on name simple read 'Stone'. On the opposite shoulder, the patch was a black field with numerous white stars bordered with gold and, in the center, was a large, crimson, number thirteen.

_'Thirteenth Space Fleet, maybe?'_ Parker idly wondered, _'But __**whose**__?'_ The faction patch with the trident wasn't familiar to him.

Before he could think any more on that little mystery, a hologram of Kane, the former prophet himself, formed from the floor up in the center of the bridge.

_'No fucking way..._'

"Admiral." Captain Stone stood to attention briefly, heels clicking lightly as she did, and then relaxed once more - though Parker noted that there was a flinch to her right leg. Looking down it, he could see the blood that had stained the pants of her uniform; starting about about the mid-thigh and running down in blotches. It didn't appear to be bleeding anymore, but the injury was certainly recent. "I take it you've found what we came for? And a base for us to use?"

"Indeed I have. I'll transmit the coordinates shortly. Viktor Saveli will be handling the shipping of Legion's core to the ship and providing engineering teams to speed up our basic repairs. I have no doubt he will insist on providing an escort on top of that once we're ready to move the _Saving Grace_ to our base."

"Very generous of him." Captain Stone smiled, "I may like this friend of yours after all." The smile soon fell though, "Unfortunately, there's another matter that I do believe should be attended to; quickly."

"Oh?" At this, Kane seemed genuinely surprised.

"Yes." Captain Stone closed her eyes then, as if focussing. A moment later they opened.

"I see." Kane nodded, "Handle it. I would prefer no fatalities, but do what you deem neccessary. I trust your judgement, Yuriko."

==X==X==X==

Back at the GDI stealth transport, the pilot sat in his seat, kicked back and relaxing while he waited for the commando team to return. He'd been nervous at first, but the more that he thought about things, the less sense worrying made. The bird was stealthed, and could detect stealth with its onboard sensors. Having figured that the team wouldn't be needing an extraction for a while, he leaned back and folded his hands together over his chest. If there was anything untoward destined to happen, the bird's sensors would let him know in advance. Thus, what could one little nap hurt?

Just about the time that he closed his eyes, he heard the faint clicking sound of an old revolver's hammer being cocked just behind his right ear - and he simply sighed sighed.

"Fuck."


	12. Chapter 12

When the transmission ended, the bridge crew resumed their duties; Parker, however, could only stare - and wonder at what he'd just seen. Kane was back. Why? And what was that about, that little thing about 'he'd rather there not be fatalities?'

_'He means, Captain Parker, that he would prefer your team, and you, be taken alive.'_ The feminine voice that came so clearly in his mind was that of Captain Yuriko Stone - and he hadn't the foggiest idea that it was only in his mind. He believed that she was talking to him - though he had no idea how she knew what he was thinking about.

"How the hell...?"

_'I am not speaking, Captain. Look at me, and you should see that clearly.'_ Doing what she said, he could see that she wasn't even looking in his direction. She was sitting in her command chair on the bridge, thanking a steward that had just handed her a small cup of green tea. _'As well, I am a psychic. That's how I can talk to you this way, and how I know what you're thinking. I also know exactly where you are - and I can shut off that little suit's stealth feature whenever I like, so I suggest that you remain civilized.'_

"So what would you have me do then? Turn myself in?"

_'Precisely. You, and your team. You will not be harmed, I assure you.'_

"How can I trust you?"

_'You can't.'_

Parker smirked, "Thanks, but no thanks, Captain Stone. I'm not going to risk my team on your word."

The instant that Yuriko stood from her command chair, setting down the tea as she did, Parker had the distinct feeling that he'd just royally stepped in it.

_'Have it your way, Captain Parker.'_

The moment she turned to face him was one that Captain William Parker would never forget. There was a soft cyan glow around her eyes, and she raised her right arm. Her hand was limp at first, but a second after it was raised, it glowed as well and went rigid. A blast of telekinetic energy blew him away from the tactical officer's control panel he'd been standing at. He was slammed against the wall, and then asif held in a giant hand he was slammed into the floor and held there - until suddenly the suit's stealth ability cut out.

However, after that, he could move again. Standing quickly, he saw why he was suddenly free. Yuriko was nearly collapsed and leaning against her chair, blood running from her nose, as the steward fussed over her. Taking this as his chance, Parker charged off the bridge, down the hall, and around the corner out of sight. Back on the bridge, Yuriko smiled softly to the steward, and let the old man help her back into her seat. "I'll be fine, Yashida-sama, really. I promise." She said softly, dabbing under her nose with a red hankerchief the old man handed her.

"Perhaps you will, Yuriko-chan, but I shall still go and fetch your medicine." The old man replied.

Captain Stone hung her head in mock defeat, "As you wish, Yashida-sama. You've not been wrong yet these many years." She gave a small bow of her head, "Arigato." As the old man moved away from her, she could see her security chief looking at her curiously. She chuckled, "Make it sporting, at least, Mr. Slavik. Give Captain Parker a... oh, five minute head start?"

"Yes, Captain." Slavik returned with a slight bow of his head. Yuriko had once seen a picture of the young officer's grandparents together in uniform - Anton Slavik and Oxanna Kristos. She had to admit, he did, very much, resemble both what she had heard of the man... as well as his looks; right down to how rigid he was. It was amazing, really, that Oxanna had ever managed to get Anton into bed - much less to actually give her a child. Then again, miracles did happen... though even with the miracle their child's birth, there never was a marriage between the two before Oxanna's death. In an ironic twist of fate, she actually had ended up dying in a tunnel collapse near her home, not long before the beginning of the Firestorm Crisis. The old false report from after her rescue of Anton from Hassan's men had ended up less a lie, and more a prophesy.

==X==X==X==

"All members of Alpha Team, this is Captain William Parker. I'm scrubbing the mission! They know we're here; I repeat, _they know we are here!_"

"What do you mean 'they know we're here,' Captain?" O'Connell's voice came on the comm, "The hell did you do?"

"I didn't do jack shit O'Connell!" Parker snapped, "The captain of this ship is a goddamned psychic! Telepathy, telekinesis, all of it!"

"What about Kane?" Now it was Baker's voice, "Is he really back?" She asked, "Zhukov and I were listening in on their comm frequencies."

"Damn right he is! We better get back to base and tell Locke, pronto!" Parker said, then added, "We also have another problem; somehow that psychic chick must've knocked out my S.F.C.U. - I'm in the open!"

Then came the old man's Chezc accent, "Sounds like this whole mission is turning into one!"

What did good ol' Zhukov mean? Well, S.F.C.U. stood for 'Stealth Function Control Unit' - the bit of tech that kept the suits cloaked in their stealth field. Some of the British commandos had given the acronym another meaning: 'Stupid Fucking Cock-Up'. Right now, it applied.

"I'd have to say he's right, Cap'!" O'Connell laughed, "What're our orders?"

"Form up with me and we'll head to the transport. Hopefully the suit's repair system might fix my S.F.C.U. - if not, we'll just have to run faster."

Zhukov laughed, "Don't you love being a spy, Captain?"

Parker didn't bother with replying. The old man new well enough that he hated this situation. The five minute head-start was almost enough time to get out of the ship - _almost_. Just before the inner section of the hull appeared before him, the ship's emergency sirens sounded and the security officer's voice came over the ship's internal comm, talking about finding him. He was outside by the time that the message was over. Of course, the exterior security had heard Lieutenant Commander Slavik's alert message as well thanks, most likely, to their own headsets. The moment he stepped outside, a whole squad of thirteen of those black cloak wearing security troops were headed his way.

"Alright, new plan guys - screw the rendezvous! Just head for the transport; they have me pegged - just go!"

"What about you?" Baker asked over the comm.

"Throw down your weapons and surrender, or we _will_ fire!" The squad leader - whichever one that was - shouted at him. Every one of the squad's weapons was raised. He had no idea what they were, but he was willing to bet that he wouldn't survive if they opened up on him.

"I'll be fine. Locke will figure something out." He said over the comm, slowly raising his hands and removing his weapons. "Good luck, guys."

==X==X==X==

"Damn it, Parker." O'Connell sighed, looking to the other stealthed commandos as they arrived. "Wild Bill's been had. Let's get outta here."

"Why didn't he fight?" Zhukov asked, "This isn't like him."

"Friendly nation. Rules of engagement dictate we can't open fire when we're not in a state of war - unless they shoot first. You know better than to need me to answer that." O'Connell rolled his eyes.

"Doesn't mean I like it." Zhukov muttered the retort.

"Come on guys, the sooner we get back, the sooner Locke can work his magic and spring Parker." Baker cut in, and the two males nodded.

==X==X==X==

The return trip to the transport took less than half the time of the first trip, and O'Connell had radioed ahead so the engines were already warmed up when they get onboard. The rear ramp lowered as they approached, and as soon as they were all on it began to raise - while the transport itself began to rise into the air. The lights over the armor holding units were on and the holders were open. As soon as they were airborne, the three commandos stepped into their respective holding units.

Once their suits were deactivated and opened, they stepped out and the holding units shut. When the units shut is also when the first sign of trouble came. All at once, twelve of those same cloaked security troopers decloaked in the transport's passenger bay - weapons raised. Four cloaked troopers stood around each of the three commandos, and quickly herded them into the center of the passenger bay as a woman appeared from the cockpit - pushing the GDI pilot into the center with them. She wore one of the old Chameleon Spy stealth suits. However, her weapons were... different. On her right hip was the holster for the Colt Peacemaker held in her hand; on her left were a Katana and a Wakazashi in their scabbards. All seemed coated in the same material as the stealth suit itself. Under her left arm was the suit's helmet, and her long rayven hair hung down to her mid-back.

"I am Lieutenant Saeko Yashida, counter-intelligence officer of the _Saving Grace_ - and until further notice, you are in my custody."

"On whose authority?" O'Connell challenged as the pilot joined them.

"Captain Yuriko Stone of the _ARSF Saving Grace_, and Admiral Kane, of the Atlantean Republican Guard."

==X==X==X==

The rest of the trip in the transport was silent. The three commandos could hardly believe what had happened. On their first real field op, they'd been captured. Though, what they were even more focussed on was what Lieutenant Yashida had said. The _Saving Grace_? Was that the starship's name? And... Kane, an Admiral? He'd had a lot of titles in the Brotherhood, but what the hell was the _Atlantean_ Republican Guard? Surely, it was only a name, right?

Could they really be from Atlantis?

O'Connell and Baker quickly dismissed the idea as utterly preposterous. It would be insane to think that they were actually from an ancient Earth civilization - they came here on a spaceship, after all. It was more likely, in their minds, that Kane had created some sort of force like Nod wherever it was that he had gone. After all, the 'Brotherhood of Nod' was a reference to the 'land of Nod' mentioned in the Bible. Zhukov was thinking differently though. Kane seemed immortal, nobody had ever successfully explained that away. If that was possible, who was to say that Atlantis wasn't?

In Zhukov's mind, it stood to reason that Kane was, in fact, immortal. He had been around before the Soviets had cloning tech. That meant he was nearing, at least, two hundred years of age... and looked the same. For Kane, immortality was reality. How could that be explained though? It wasn't a genetic possibility for humans. However, it seemed that Kane knew about the Scrin. Lured them, even. How could he know about an alien race that nobody else knew of? Hell, how had he known how to use the Scrin Threshold Tower? Where had he and his most loyal followers gone to?

Much as he was sure the top brass in GDI would have tried to skirt around it, all the evidence available pointed to Kane being from another world. Perhaps Atlantis wasn't some legend after all. If Kane had come from another world, then that world clearly had to be capable of at least interstellar travel, right? If so, it stood to reason that they could have had a colony on Earth at some point, didn't it? He'd heard a theory once that Atlantis might have been on top of a mid-Atlantic caldera, and when there was a shift along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge it had broken down; popped like a balloon, and dropped the city straight to the bottom of the ocean. He hadn't given it much thought then, but now his mind wondered. If that theory was right, then that city might have been a colony from another world, and could very well have been the Atlantean version of Roanoke.

Perhaps then that meant that Kane was the colony's only survivor (or at least one of very few). Maybe this entire time he had been trying to get home, just so his people could know what happened. Why had they never tried to settle on Earth again? Surely, from ancient descriptions, they would have had the technology to do so, and to conquer the indigenous population. According to some ancient descriptions, they were a war-like people. Yet, if the arrival of Kane's ship was any indicator, Atlantis had its own war with the Scrin and had not been as lucky as Earth. How was that possible though? Earth beat the Scrin back. Why had Atlantis lost? How?

The moment finally came, as the transport touched down, that Zhukov had enough of holding his tongue. "Lieutenant Yashida, may I ask you something?" He asked, looking to the raven-haired woman as she leaned against the transport's inner hull, "It's personal."

"I suppose. What do you want to know?" She asked curiously.

"Are you human?" The question was blunt, but there was no reason not to be. O'Connell and Baker couldn't help but stare at the old man.

Yashida chuckled and grinned knowingly. "What's your name, soldier?"

"Zhukov. Antonius."

"Well then, Antonius... from now on, you may call me Saeko..." She smirked a little, "And no, _**I'm**_ not an alien."


	13. Chapter 13

The return trip to the surface didn't take anywhere near the amount of time that the trip down had taken. Of course, the fact that there was a warp gate constructed on sub-level ten helped with that. It had been put in as a sort of 'emergency exit' - though, aside from testing, it had only been used to return to the surface. The short conversation witht he ship's captain that followed was interesting; especially the telepathic bit.

"So you have a psychic, huh?" Viktor asked as they headed for the 'Watering Hole' - the base's primary bar. In reality it was a mix of a bar & grill and a gentleman's club. How did it get to stay, despite military regulations? Simple; it was officers only.

"I do. Captain Yuriko Stone. She's the commanding officer of the _Saving Grace_ when I'm not aboard."

"The '_Saving Grace'_?"

"The ship."

"I kinda figured that." Viktor rolled his eyes, "Is that the ship's original name? That's what I meant."

"Oh; no. The original name was _Explorer_. We changed it because _Saving Grace_ was more... fitting."

"I see." Viktor nodded, "So, tell me about this psychic of yours. Any relation to her namesake?"

"In all honesty, I'm not really sure. Her name translates as 'daughter of Yuri', or something to that effect in English. Of course, Yuri in Japan could be a woman's name - like a woman in the West would be named Lily. It's hard to say based on her name alone, though it is a startling coincidence given her psychic abilities."

At the mention of her abilities, Viktor paused in his steps, and Kane did as well; looking at him curiously. "She can't... mind control people, right?" Viktor asked tentatively. Kane simply laughed, and Viktor gave him an indignant look. "What?"

"No, Viktor, she can't - at least not that I've seen." Kane smiled slightly, "In fact, were it not for Yuri's built-in Psychic Amplifier, he wouldn't have been able to either."

"So that's what that headgear was?"

"Indeed." Kane nodded as they resumed walking. "In fact, Stalin only had that put on him when the Allies began pushing into Russia itself." He shook his head, "As a matter of fact, Yuri wasn't naturally a madman."

"Could've fooled me." Viktor scoffed.

"Many said the same of me when I proposed the TCN hub, Viktor."

Viktor opened his mouth as if to speak, and then shut it abruptly. Any retort he would have given in Kane's defense was surely to be used by the former Nod leader as a defense for Yuri. Thus, he remained silent and Kane continued.

"You see, near the end of the first war, Stalin began to go mad. He thought he'd won the war, and then the Allies came back from the brink of destruction with more force than he'd ever expected. He blamed his commanders, started seeing enemies where there were none, and executed many of his top generals as 'traitors to the Soviet people'. He kept Yuri close, and told him all these things. What he didn't know was that Yuri was a Nod agent. He and I worked together to keep Stalin in check. Yuri was his personal counter-intelligence officer, and I was acting as his head of the KGB. Made for a very easy way for us to verify each other's loyalties to him, you see."

"Yeah, I see alright. You 'investigate' one another and tell him that the other is alright, so he believes you both - not knowing that you're working together."

"Exactly." Kane grinned, "You're sharp, Viktor, I'll give you that much. Anyway, there were other Nod agents as well, specifically one of his female advisors, and his favorite field officer. You remember the Russian General that took over after Stalin... well, 'died'?"

"You mean after he was poisoned?"

Kane shrugged. "Same difference."

"Yeah, I remember him."

"He was our top agent in the Soviet ranks."

"Whatever happened to him? The Allies never did find him, or his remains, after the Siege of Moscow."

Kane grinned. "Getting to that." He chuckled, "Yuri was with General Zhukov up until the end of the war, and to get our top man out there was a simple plan concocted. Yuri would 'defect' and tell the Allies where the Soviet Field Marshal, General Zhukov, was. The Allies would then bomb the command post, and a recon team would return with news that he had died. Meanwhile, the truth was that Nod special forces would be using a stolen Allied jeep and uniforms to retrieve General Zhukov - who would pose as an Allied Army Captain bringing news of the Soviet Field Marshal's death. With him 'dead', the Soviets would be thrown into chaos while trying to figure out which of the remaining officers was most senior. In all the chaos, the lines would break, and the Allies would route the Soviets, ending the siege..."

"...and capturing Moscow." Viktor finished the sentence, nodding in understanding of the plan, "So General Zhukov never died? Where did he go?"

"Czechoslovakia. He retired there with his family. On a farm." Kane chuckled at the memory, "Raised goats."

"And the Allies never suspected anything?"

"Well, they did for a time. They thought he might have gotten a passport from the Vatican and taken an OSS sponsored South American Airlines flight to Argentina. A lot of the Soviet spies and top brass did that with the intention of getting out of Russia before the Germans got to them. Field Marshal Rommel and General Gehlen, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces late in the war, and Commanding Officer of Abwhehr Ost - German Intelligence - respectively, both wanted to get their hands on those officers and spies. Rommel wanted the officers in order to better understand Russian tactics, and Gehlen wanted to pump the spies for intel. The American OSS wanted them for their _own_ intel."

"Oh yeah... I remember reading about that. Those spies and officers eventually led the insurrection in Mexico, right? The one Romanov used as an excuse to station Russian 'peacekeeping' forces down there?"

"You got it." Kane nodded.

"So the entire time, they were looking on the wrong continent for Zhukov, and he was just in the next country over... raising goats?" Viktor laughed, "That's fucking genius!"

"Best part? They thought Zhukov was Russian. He was _actually_ Czech. Didn't even have to fake it."

Viktor shook his head. "The people you work with." He paused, "Speaking of..."

"Right. Yuri." Kane nodded, "Well, after the war ended and Romanov was in power, the Allies installed Yuri as a spy... essentially. He was meant to tell them if the Soviets started getting ready for war. He was supposed to be their early warning system and a way to control Romanov."

"So what the hell happened?"

"I only have theories as to what might have happened. The last time I spoke to him was one week before the outbreak of the Third World War. He told me that what we'd done was wrong. That we were the reason for everything happening as it did, and that Stalin hadn't deserved to die." Kane shook his head. "I knew then and there that the man I'd known was gone. When I met Yuri, he was an up and coming nueral sergeon, a certified psychologist, a respected college professor, and above all a peaceful man with a very special gift."

"How did you even get him to join to Brotherhood?"

"I told him the truth. He read my mind and confirmed it for himself; so he agreed to help. He was one of the few people that knew what I was really doing, and we became good friends. He was always fascinated with the tales of my homeworld - and the history of Earth that I had witnessed. He only agreed to help me control Stalin because he knew my eventual goal. When we met, he only had the ability to persuade people; like a Jedi mind trick."

Viktor glanced at him. "Really?"

At that, Kane stopped and raised his cloak's hood, speaking as he slowly moved his hand across in front of Viktor's face. "These are not the droids you're looking for..." At that, Viktor laughed, and Kane lowered the hood. "Simply put, yes, really. That, and telepathy were about all he had. The mind control came with the amplifier."

Viktor nodded as they resumed walking, "So what's your theory about what happened?"

"Well, you know how some actors get stuck in a role, even after the movie is wrapped?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I think that's what happened to Yuri. He filled his role for so long that eventually it became real, and betraying Stalin - not to mention being an Allied spy after that - broke him. I think he honestly believed that our fake histories were the reality, and that Stalin would have wanted him to return the USSR to its former glory, as well as expand its borders further. Romanov was a puppet alright - he was just Yuri's puppet. I believe that if the Soviets had won the second war, he would have retuned the frequency of the Psychic Beacons and Amplifiers that the Soviets had constructed during the war, and taken the Soviet holdings over that way. He also had been planning to get rid of General Vladimir from what my spies told me, so he probably would have killed two birds with one stone and framed him for Romanov's death."

Viktor thought for a moment. "But when the Allies turned the tide, he decided he'd have to go the manual route."

"Like the old saying goes: if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself." Kane said with a nod, "I'm glad he lost. He was my friend once, but I'm very glad he lost."

"I think everyone is." Viktor added, "What do you think happened to him?"

"What do you mean? You, me, and everyone else knows that. He got locked up in a psychic isolation chamber somewhere. The Allies made that very public."

"They did." Viktor said, pausing before continuing, "But they didn't want anyone to know that someone broke him out."

Kane stopped in his tracks. "Someone _what_?"

"Someone sprung him from Groom Lake back in the 1980's. Nobody knows who or why, but someone did. The FBI, and the CIA after it was reformed from the OSS, both had manhunts going covertly. Neither found him."

"How did you learn this? Even I hadn't heard of this until now."

"After you left, me and a team of technicians made a quick trip to the D.C. ruins. Got every data file we could."

"And that was one of them?"

"Yeah. Was just about the only pre-tiberium data file still marked 'Secret - Authorized Personnel - Eyes Only'. Guess even GDI didn't want anyone to know. That, or after the FBI and CIA declared the case cold, they just forgot about it. Hell, by the time the file would have been public, Yuri would have been too old or dead to matter anyway."

"Hm." Kane let the single hummed syllable come forth as he thought, and finally said, "Who knows then? Maybe Yuriko is related to him somehow." He shrugged, "But if she is, the only ones to know are her, and possibly the Yashidas."

"The Yashidas?"

"Her adoptive family, from what I gather."

"You mean you don't know?" Viktor asked incredulously, "How have you not looked into this?"

Kane gave a quick glare, "I had slightly more important matters on my mind at the time, Viktor." He shook his head then, "There are only two of them left. Mr. Mamoru Yashida, and his grandaughter, Lieutenant Saeko Yashida - the _Saving Grace_'s counter-intelligence officer. I have no idea where they came from or what happened to their family members. They keep to themselves, and do their jobs. That's all I cared about."

"How did you even meet them?"

"They came to me shortly before the Ascention at Threshold 19. They were all volunteers. I accepted their help; Yuriko and Saeko were young girls then." Kane said softly, thinking back to their meeting.

Viktor smiled. "In other words, you took pity on an old man and his teenage grandaughters."

Kane sighed, "I'm not a bleeding heart, Viktor."

"Oh, just admit it."

"Alright. Fine. I took pity on them." Kane said flatly, "Happy now?"

"Yes." Viktor grinned as they reached the Watering Hole. "So, what about now that you're all back?" he asked as the guard held the door open for them; noting the momentary stare at Kane as they passed him. Kane didn't seem to notice - or care, if he had.

"I might look into it when time permits. For now, there are more important matters." Kane replied as Viktor lead him toward the bar - though he did find himself distracted by the cleavage of the redhead on the stage... but only for a moment, of course.

"Tell me then," Viktor began as they sat at the bar, "what is it that's going on, Kane?"

About the time that Kane was about to open his mouth, the bartender walked over; a young Japanese man, cleaning a shotglass. "Good afternoon. What can I get you, gentlemen?"

"Bourbon or Vodka, whichever we have more of, if you don't mind, Han." Viktor smiled as the young man stepped away to fetch the liquor.

Once Han was out of earshot, Kane leaned toward Viktor, motioning toward Han as he whispered, "Are you sure it's safe to speak?"

Viktor chuckled, "Priests and bartenders are the most tight-lipped people on Earth, and bartenders don't have a Pope to report to." He waved a hand, "Han is no exception to that."

"Alright, if you're sure." Kane said, glancing once toward the bartender as he came back with a vodka bottle and two shot glasses; thanking him in time with Viktor before he stepped away.

"Before we begin," Viktor said as he poured the shots; then held one out to Kane. After Kane took it, he held his own up. "Nasdrovia." Kane repeated the word, their glasses clicked, and they downed the shots. "Okay, now that the formalities are out of the way, go on." Viktor said with a small wave of his hand.

"Well, as I was going to say, I need your help setting up a conference."

"Who with?"

"Dignitaries from GDI, SSI, the ERS, and the ARG's senior command staff."

"Two things." Viktor said as he took another shot, "First, what is the ARG, and second, why do you want a bunch of world leaders together?"

Kane sighed, "Does _nobody_ trust me?" He shook his head then and answered. "The ARG is the Atlantean Republican Guard, and I want those dignitaries gathered so I can inform them of the danger that this planet is now in."

The moment that the word 'Atlantean' left Kane's mouth, Viktor stared at him, and the rest of what the former prophet said was nearly lost on him. "_Atlantean_?" He grabbed the vodka bottle and poured them both a shot - downing his own almost instantly, "And what danger?"

"I'll explain about my people another time, Viktor. As for the danger, suffice it to say that the Scrin are intending to make a return trip to Earth, and this time it won't simply be a harvesting force." Kane noted how quiet Viktor went at hearing the second part. "So, will you help me, or not?"

Viktor swallowed thickly, his face pale as he motioned for Han. "Get me the Absinthe, Han. Vodka ain't gonna cut it."

Meanwhile, Kane downed the shot that had been poured for him a moment ago, and poured another for himself.


End file.
